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The Internet is the gateway to thousands of jobs, potential employees, and business opportunities.
That's the good news.
The bad news is it's also the gateway to being scammed bigtime, wasting your hard-earned money on job postings seen only by empty coffee cups, and all around utter frustration.
How you approach it...that's what makes the difference. So let's start off with:
Before You Begin - All The World...Can Know Who You Are!
Consider the following. You would like a job. You craft a resume of stunning elegance. You post it to, say, Monster.com or Hotjobs.com or any one of the big huge job boards out there. And for good measure, you put it upon your personal website as well!
What happens to that resume, do you think? Well, it will travel. It will don on Mt. Everst hiking boots (okay, not literally) and start traveling about the globe. If your resume is indexed in a search engine, recruiters might stumble upon it via targeted searching. If it's in a job database, recruiters might share it with other professionals in hopes of a split commission.
In any event, once put on the Internet, you have not a clue as to where it will end up.
Now let's take this a step further. Let's say that you are a fervent poster to several unconvential forums/newsgroups, and you have contributed most vocally for days/weeks/months/ etc. Have you ever tried searching for your name online? Trust me, future employers will!
Is what they find information you think will help your career search....or toast it more effectively than a volcano's eruption?
It's something on which to ponder.
Employers have a different set of concerns when they search for employees. It can cost big bucks to post a job online! Let's say that you're the president of Big Huge Minds, Inc. and you are searching for an executive account analyst who can drum up collegiate business in the midst of the hospital's newborn ward.
If you post your job requirements where only computer programmers reside, your success rate will be slightly less than that of a snowflake competing in a "how hot can your kitchen get?" contest.
Not good, eh?
But that's not all! Let's tackle the third business concept of businesses on the Internet - starting your own.
It's is sooo easy to be scammed online it's truly a crying shame. So let me offer the first of some superb resources that are a must-read - Friends In Business Scams 101. This gem has been written by a lady who was scammed for thousands of dollars and decided to warn the rest of the world about such practices. Her board, Friends In Business Board is very helpful for those folks considering running their own businesses online. More resources will follow.
With that as an intro, let's now some neat business resources online.
Step 1 - Finding A Job
This will be covered more here. But let me give you some really super job finding resources first!
- Job-Hunt.org - tons of great job resources from job networking to targeted job boards to job hunting basics to ....well, just about everything.
- Riley guide - one of the originals, it has resources for coverletters, salary guides, recruiters and much more.
- Career Guide to Industries - by the US Department of Labor, wealth of information.
- Quint Careers - lots of great tools/resources to buff up your appeal factor to employers.
- Salary.com - find out how much you're worth in your industry.
Always remember when looking for a position - what's in it for the company to hire you? What greatness do you bring to the table? So many resumes are written from the viewpoint, I want a job ....well of course you do! Everyone does. But think about it...who will get the better initial attention, the job candidate who focuses on how she or he can increase profits to the bottom line, or the job candidate who boldly states, I want a job.
Well? It is to think, eh?
But what if you're on the other side of the spectrum? It's now time for:
Step 2 - Finding An Employee
Recruiting online is big business! I should know, my colleague used to travel the world training in it. But I digress. :-)
More information about this will be covered here. But for the moment, let me introduce you to some super resources:
- Xtreme Recruiting - High-powered interviews about recruiters and social media experts.
- Recruiters Network Resources - free resources on finding free resumes, writing effective job posts and more.
- Electronic Recruiting Exchange - excellent discussion group for recruiters.
- Free Management Library - dozens of different resources for all sorts of management issues.
- Monster.com
- huge job database - sometimes offers a free job posting.
Finding quality candidates online truly can be an art. But I digress.
We've tackled finding a job and finding an employee.... let's now dive into:
Step 3 - Running Your Own Business
Ah, the siren call of being your own boss. Not being at the beck and call of a J.O.B. (or whatever it is that MLM scamsters will fling in your general direction). Sheer nirvana, right?
El wrongo! While one can run their own business (and even their own business online), it's a big huge gaping minefield of terror and doom for most of those people considering it. Why? Because the Internet is swell at hiding scams....and refusing to reveal the truth about your own business online.
I'll cover more of that here. But in the meanwhile, let me first regale you sheer common sense, breath-taking in its simplicity:
If you're putting in 60-80 hours a week trying to get things to work, and seeing a negative return on your profit statement, something ain't right.
Got it? You'll see more later on. In the meanwhile, here are some great resources for learning about running your own business:
- Small Business Administration - lots of great resources/forms/ideas about running your business.
- Biz Startups - from Entrepreneur.com, a wealth of free help and resources.
- Business Plans - from the Carnegie Library, it's a how-to listing of dozens of potential businesses.
- Business Plans - from the Carnegie Library, it's a how-to listing of dozens of potential businesses.
- Avoiding Work At Home Scams - from SoHoJobs, this describes over a dozen
different ways people lose money thru phoney business opportunities.
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