Through 03-30-96

The conventional wisdom is "never pay to have your resume placed anywhere." The reasoning goes "Recruiters make their money from companies, you should never let them make twice the money." Fine....but it doesn't really apply on the Web.

Because the web is so vast, being seen becomes the paramount virtue. You can be seen by doing the work yourself, but in certain quarters it's just plain less expensive to pay someone to distribute your credentials. The other logic, sometimes used, is that mass distribution of your resume is a sure way to let your boss know that you're looking for another job. We'd suggest that if your boss runs across your resume, it's probably because she is also looking for a job. (Though she may well be looking to replace you.) In either case, the fact that she sees your credentials floating around the web shouldn't be a concern.

In the beginnings of our studies of the Web as a recruiting tool, we posted lots of resumes in lots of places. It's been over a year and the phone still rings. We think that the best explanation you can offer for the disclosure that your resume is online is something like..."Oh, yeah, it's on the web. Things stay there forever."

That said, there are tons of credible places to list yourself. All of our advertisers offer the service. As a start, you might consider sending your resume to all of the applicable services in our Top 25 .

We recently got email from yet another listing service ResumeNet looks potentially promising. They are quite "mum" about how effective it might be, however.

It's Friday. If you're in the throes of a job search, you probably need to be reminded to take a break. Job hunting is tough and frustrating work. As a flight of fancy, imagine taking a job in the gaming industry.

Ameristar Casinos offer employment in their various properties throughout the south. If you're really interested in a southern gaming career, check out:

• Academy of Casino Training - a school approved by the Mississippi Gaming Commission to prepare students for employment as dealers in the gaming Industry.
• Index - Mississippi Coast Casinos

Using the Net as a Job Hunting tool means teaching yourself the ins and outs of a new technology. Finding help with your particular problems can be frustrating and time consuming. A useful resource for those moments is The Internet Help Desk. The clean layout and well written instructions are a blessing when confronting the normal hassles of being online. Now, instead of hearing someone tell you "You need to talk to some one else about your Internet connection." You can visit The Internet Help Desk. They're pretty good and generally include pointers that will help you solve the most often encountered difficulties.

The other problem with using the net is the abundant, confusing new terminology. We suggest that you bookmark the Cook Report's Glossary. It's thorough and broad beyond your immediate requirements.

All of the online resources that we know about assume that you know what you want. Once you have solved the riddle of knowing your goals, the job search can be a somewhat mechanical process. Skills Assessments (like the Intellimatch service we mentioned yesterday) can help with knowing what you have to offer. But, they fall short if you're looking for the "right" job.

A surprise end to the career that you thought was a permanent job, the first job hunt, mid-life transitions, work-force reentry and early or military retirements all put you squarely in front of the "Knowing What You Want" question. How can you seek a position if you don't know what you want from a job and what you have to offer prospective employers? Self-assessment, though a time-consuming process, provides invaluable information to facilitate career decisions and to prepare you to market your background effectively.

You might consider taking the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS). The KTS is a temperament categorization tool that will give you some useful feedback about your work patterns and preferences. Background information on the test is also available.

In a fit of flattery, USA Today has named us a "Hot Site"

We're big fans of Intellimatch, and not just because they advertise here. We recommend that you take a moment, if you haven't, to fill out their WATSON resume. It's a great exercise in skills assessment. When you complete the process, it generates an HTML (web page) resume that you can download and use elsewhere.

Yesterday, there were over 750 thousand internet jobs listed in Altavista. Usenet newsgroups had an additional 600 thousand job listings.

Increasingly, the alternate strategy to a full blown Direct Marketing campaign, with thousands of emailed resumes and a small percentage of responses, is to establish a relationship with a Recruiter.

You might want to use the Commercial Sites Index from Open Market. It profiles over 20,000 companies with Web Pages. It's a great resource for gathering information on your targets.

Although the idea of marketing has a bad time of it in some quarters, we tend to view the job hunt as a marketing problem. Whether you want to seamlessly integrate your passions and occupation; just want to make as much income as possible; or, find work in a real hurry, it's all about letting the right people know about your credentials, availability and readiness.

Most job hunters don't think about the so called Direct Marketing industry as a source of ideas for speeding results in the search. But, when you stop and reflect for a moment, resume submittal is so much like a Direct Mail campaign that it's scary....Lots of mail going out with a small likelihood that any individual piece will be noticed or replied to.

You might want to take a look at the Direct Marketing News Website and reflect for a moment on how to use this industry's tools. Though the numbers seem impossible, many fortunes have been made by using them.