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.. Interview With Rhidian Orr
    SEPTEMBER 29, 1996 --- As an experiment, we're using this week's issue of 1st Steps in the Hunt as a forum. We're very excited to present Rhidian Orr, the Director of Academic Development for 4Work.com. In the online employment business, being a pioneer means having been in the game for more than a couple of years. Rhid (as he's known to friends) has been at it for several. In his role at 4Work.com, he's responsible for building a win-win network that serves the needs of campus career offices, students and employers. In our estimation, he's seen it all.

    We interviewed him, by email, this past week. His perspective on the electronic job hunt is well worth your time.

    1st Steps: Where are the two best places (besides 4WORK) to begin a job hunt?

    Rhidian Orr: As the web continues to grow there are more and more choices where to start. For recent college grads I recommend checking with their campus Career Centers as a first step. In most cases the Career Centers have worked hard to create relationships with employers that hire recent college grads. Many of them have put together Websites of their own to help distribute information about job hunt strategies and resources. Stanford, for example, has put together a great Meta-list of on-line job-search resources and services. List such as these give a person a greater feeling for the types of services and reference tools that are available on the Web. As this function on the Web is still in it's formative stage, job seekers should experiment with multiple services to determine their ease of use and to expose themselves to as many different opportunities as they can in their search for a job.

    1st Steps: Are there any Website that are particularly good for pursuing specialty employment?

    Rhidian Orr: Two years ago I would have said that the news groups would have been the place to search for a specific type of job. Today, most news groups have become cluttered and looking for the right job can be virtually impossible. It's like looking for gold in a stream with a four inch sieve and hoping the gold flakes get stuck on the cross bar. As the web moves into its adolescence, it's beginning to develop niche markets. One of the best examples of this is athletics. Off line you virtually need to know someone in the organization to get a job. The Online Sports Career Center has done a nice job putting these opportunities at the job seekers finger tips. This site is designed for the people who are looking for careers in the sports field. Niche markets for specialized occupations are popping up all the time. Depending on the type of job people are looking for, there are likely areas on the web that specialize in their area of interest. Utilizing the search engines and doing a little research can pay great dividends.

    1st Steps: How would you research a targeted email campaign for resume distribution?

    Rhidian Orr: I would recommend that a person evaluate what their own skill sets before proceeding with any sort of job hunt. There are different sites that help people evaluate there personal areas of interest and skill bases. Once a person knows what they want to do, their next step is determining where they want to work in a geographic sense. I recommend using one of the search engine spiders. One of the most up to date spiders on the web is Altavista. For example, when you enter in your geographic area and your skill sets, the spider will pull up a list of positions in that geographic area. Through looking through all the different opportunities a job seeker can find the right person to send their resume to.

    1st Steps: Do you have any cover letter pointers?

    Rhidian Orr: I was at a conference earlier this year and this question was raised in a group of employers and career counselors. The bigger companies represented did not see a need for cover letters. The only use that they found for the cover letters was to determine which position the candidate was applying for. Most of the medium to small companies still utilize the cover letter as a sample of a persons writing ability. I encourage job seekers to contact the Career Centers at their almamater to find out whether they know if a specific employer needs a cover letter. If the information is not available it is better to be safe and write a well thought out cover letter. Make sure that your spelling and grammar are impeccable. For some good pointers on content and structure a job seeker can reference the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute home page.

    1st Steps: Where's a good place for advice on building a resume?

    Rhidian Orr: There are hundreds of places on the web to find advice on how to write the perfect resume. You can find a list of these address by going to Yahoo! or any other major search engine and entering "writing resumes". Some of the people giving advice on the web are more qualified then others. The College of William & Mary has put together a very easy to use step by step process of building a resume. Another incredible resource where you can find tips and step by step process is through the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE has a site that gives advice from every aspect of career services. They have put together a great page of resources on building the right resume.

    1st Steps: What about HTML resumes?

    Rhidian Orr: For me the jury is still out on the value of HTML resumes. On one hand there are spiders sent out by large recruiting firms to collect all the HTML resumes they can find. Most the larger companies that I deal with still uses some sort of OCR that compiles their data into an in-house database. Through talking to employers across the country I have found that most of the companies that still use OCR's as a means of sorting data would prefer a resume that was clean with very few graphics. They have told me that resumes in a strong text base are easier to scan. Now days it is important for a job seeker to utilize all the tools available to assist them in attaining a job. Microsoft has made it very simple to transfer a document from a word format into HTML.

    1st Steps: Any final thoughts on electronic job hunting?

    Rhidian Orr: I can't finish this interview without a plug for our site. The amount of information out there about opportunities and job hunt strategies is staggering, and there's more everyday. To help with this, we built BTAB (It's `Better Than A Bookmark!). BTAB is an intelligent agent that job-seekers can task to search 4work.com for opportunities. It brings order to chaos, it never sleeps, and it works for nothing. (I had a roommate like that once…;-) We've thousands of jobs indexed on our site and we're adding more every day. In addition, we have almost 3,000 `resume builders' for undergrads, though on the site we call them volunteer opportunities and internships.

    1st Steps: Thanks, Rhid.

More Resources

  • Companies with Job Ads (Over 500 Links to Companies and their Job Postings)
  • Tools (Everything You need for a Job Hunt)
  • The daily newsletters are archived in weekly volumes in the Archives. Past issues include:
Week Ending October 6, 1996
  • Interview With Rhidian Orr
    • College Career Centers
    • HTML Resumes
    • Specialty Employment Areas
    • Resume Advice
Week Ending September 29, 1996
  • Monsanto
  • Your Career Resilience
  • Consulting Links
  • Regional Classified Advertising Links
  • Discussion List: Disabilities and Employment
2 Weeks Ending September 22, 1996
  • Finding Hidden Jobs
  • Free Career Newsletter
  • Top Jobs On The Net (UK)
  • Career City
  • Cover Letter Tips
  • Job Lynx
2 Weeks Ending September 07, 1996
  • Laughing Through The Job Hunt
  • Chivas as a Search Tool
  • Black Collegian
  • Womweb
  • 62 New Sites
  • Much, Much More
Week Ending August 24, 1996
  • Federal Employees' Survival Guide
  • New Entrepreneur
  • Global Translation Alliance
  • How Long Will You Have Your Job
  • Canadian Job Resources
Week Ending August 17, 1996
  • Medieval Self Assessment
  • Recruiter's Online Network
  • Online Career Center
  • Dealing With Being Flamed
  • Regional Yahoos
Week Ending August 10, 1996
  • Asian Speaking Professionals
  • Page Tools
  • Volt
  • Job Smart
  • Choosing the Right Recruiter
  • Avotek Headhunter's Guides
  • British Computing
Two Weeks Ending August 03, 1996
  • Getting Fired
  • Eudora Pro 3.0
  • Web Taxi
  • Net Business News
  • Job Smart
  • More Resources For Women
  • Much, Much More
Through July 20, 1996
  • Yahoo!
  • 800 Number Searching
  • 4 Work.com
  • Net-Temps
  • HR Mailing Lists
  • Editor / Publisher Interactive
Through July 13, 1996
  • Virtual Job Fair
  • HTML Resumes
  • Effective Networking
  • Intellimatch
  • Tripod
  • LIMRA for Marketing Jobs
Through July 06, 1996
  • Searching News Groups
  • Informant
  • Microsoft Viruses
  • Recruiting Links.com
  • Foolish Advice
  • Networking Article
  • New and Changed Employment Sites
  • Much More
Through June 22, 1996
  • Transition Anxiety
  • Scholarly Societies
  • Researching Your Targets
  • Computer Jobs Store
  • Skills Analysis
  • Email Etiquette
Through June 15, 1996
  • Reorganized Archives
  • Changing Industries
  • Fitness and Nutrition Resources
  • How Not To Send A Resume
  • Job Hunt Spiders
  • One Stop Job Search Interfaces
  • Practice For Interviewing
Through June 08, 1996
  • Introductions to the Hunt
  • Interviewing Resources
  • IBN
  • Virtual Job Fair
  • Understanding Equity Compensation
  • Internships and Volunteer Opportunities
  • 4Work.com
Through June 01, 1996
  • Crewlist and DigiCrime, Inc.
  • 89 New Sites
  • Resume Blast Off
  • Tips For Bulk Resume Distribution
  • Haldane's Myths Abiout The Job Market
  • Virtual Job Fair
  • Send Your Resume To 175 Companies
Through May 25, 1996
  • Jobs For Asian Speaking Professionals
  • Find The Hidden Job
  • Virtual Job Fair
  • How To Tell the Value of an HTML Resume Posting Service
  • Using Agents
  • Job Smart: The Best Introduction To the Web Job Hunt
  • Writing Resources
Through May 18, 1996
  • Understanding Internet Job Ads
  • Looking For Work In The Last Place On Earth
  • How To Tell the Value of an HTML Resume Posting Service
  • Using HTML Resumes
  • Net-Temps
  • Insurance Opportunities
Through May 11, 1996
  • 27 New Sample HTML Resumes
  • Hollywood Careers
  • Using Usenet Newsgroups
  • Telecommuting and Working From Home
  • Things You Might Not Need From Archie McPhee
  • Career Related Technology Articles
Through May 04, 1996
  • Comprehensive Searches
  • Figuring Out What You Want
  • HR Careers
  • Execu-Net
  • Taking The Offense
  • Scannable Resumes
Through April 27, 1996
  • Industry Specific Newsgroups
  • Summer Jobs
  • Self Assessment
  • On Writing Well
  • More Resume Tips
  • Using Search Engines
Through April 20, 1996
  • Law Employment Center
  • Get A Job Website
  • Networking On The Web
  • Tripod
  • The HArdest Question
Through April 13, 1996
  • Internships
  • The Job Hunt As Marketing
  • OutDoor Opportunities
  • Broadcasting Your Resume
  • Companies Offering Job Listings
Through April 06, 1996
  • Salary Surveys
  • Changes in the World Of Work
  • International Candidates
  • 100 Sample HTML Resumes
  • TAlking About Money
Through March 30, 1996
  • Knowing What You Want
  • Skills Assessment
  • Internet Help Desk
  • Riverboat Gambling Careers
  • Paying to Have Your Resume Distributed
Through March 23, 1996
  • Top 25 Recruiters
  • More About Resume Distribution
  • Job Web
  • MBAs
  • Niche Expertise
Through March 16, 1996
  • Career Crafting
  • Understanding Your Results
  • Art Deadlines List
  • BigBook.com
  • Your Ideal Job
Through March 09, 1996
  • Intellimatch
  • 24 New Sites
  • Cool Works
  • Resume Maker
  • Electronic Recruiting News
Through March 02, 1996
  • Infoseek
  • Caveat Emptor
  • Search Strategies
  • More HTML Samples
  • Postal Service
Through February 24, 1996
  • Disk Jockey Jobs
  • HTML Resumes
  • Technical Locator Corp
  • Professional Newsgroups
  • IEEE
Through February 17, 1996
  • National Association Of Training and Staffing Services
  • Disney
  • Temp Slave
  • Xing Technologies
  • Valentines Day Project
Through February 10, 1996
  • DICE and Jobsight
  • The Resume Doctor
  • AltaVista in the Hunt
  • JobCenter
  • Resume Distribution
Through February 3, 1996
  • Job Serve Recruiter's Directory
  • Recruit Media
  • Career Shop
  • Sample Resumes
  • MArgaret Riley's List
Through January 27, 1996
  • Learning Your Industry
  • Editor and Publisher Interactive
  • Learning HTML
  • E-Span
  • Kelly Services
Through January 20, 1996
  • 800 Numbers Search
  • Search Yahoo
  • Resume Help
  • HTML Resumes on OCC
  • Scholarly Societies
Through January 13, 1996
  • Use a Spell Checker
  • Truck Driver's Jobs
  • Search USENET with DEJANEWS
  • FAxes are Cheaper than Mail
  • Netscape
Through January 6, 1996
  • Job Center
  • Recruiters On Lne Network
  • WATSON
  • Thomas Register
  • SIFT


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