job searching on the internet

I’ve been in the job market a few times in my career, usually without my employer’s knowledge. Most of my employment after college resulted from knowing the right people. I had a neighbor who worked at the agency. Or had known an employee since high school and through college, who delivered the resume to HR.

I’ve taken a look at a couple of online job search tools, Monster and LinkedIn. So far neither has panned out as well as other methods.

Many people seem to use LinkedIn like a social media homepage, but aren’t hiring from there. I get a lot of spam. Most of the job postings I respond to are for jobs which the employer (or more likely, their recruiter) can’t actually remember posting. Typically when they call, they ask questions like what field I’m interested in, as if they’ve never seen my resume and don’t know why they called, after responding to specific job postings. Several have asked if I had extensive experience in fields unlike anything on my resume, such as sales or finance.

Monster has given me quite a few leads. But about half of the job offerings I apply to have already been closed. The recruiters I have spoken with as a result have not always been the most useful, even after they knew me. During one interview, I was quizzed about which technologies to use by a CTO who then said he wasn’t actually looking to hire anyone.