A good reference for IT Pros...
Maybe you’re (f)unemployed, getting restless at your current gig, or just between projects — regardless, as an information technology professional there’s almost no place better to score your next job or contract than online. After you’ve polished up your resume, spruced up your personal blog, and given some thought to exactly what color your next parachute ought to be, where should you start your official job search efforts?
Read on to check out our selection of helpful job hunt-related resources for IT Pros. And of course, if we missed any of your favorite gems be sure to share with everyone in the comments.
1. LinkedIn
It’s difficult to write a job resources post for almost any industry without including the classic professional social networking site LinkedIn. The site remains one of the premier online destinations for finding, making, and maintaining new business contacts, and should be thought of as having long-lasting networking value over time beyond simply its transactional job search utility.
With the addition of a faceted search feature late last year, LinkedIn made it even easier to finely hone in on the important opportunities and connections that really fit your background, expertise, and career interests.
2. Simply Hired
With an extensive database of 5 million jobs, Simply Hired also maintains an extensive reach across popular technology and other seminal web sites with its hosted job board software. Although not specifically restricted to IT opportunities, Simply Hired’s DNA is soaking in new media and web startup ethos and features a high percentage of technical positions in a wide variety of fields.
3. DICE
Tag-lined “the career hub for tech insiders,” DICE offers extensive job listings paired with career resources including news, advice, and discussion boards. You can search at last count over 62,000 available technology-related jobs by keyword, skill, or job title, by location, and by company.
The career center includes news on trends in employment, technology trends, management trends, and a Dice Learning section featuring a search engine geared towards technical training and certification results. A DiceTV section offers video training on topics like giving better presentations, improving your interviewing skills, the etiquette of follow-up contacts and more.
4. Just Tech Jobs
With a name like Just Tech Jobs, this site is not being cryptic about its target market. You can post your resume and search jobs by keyword, location, job duration (full-time, part-time, or freelance/temporary), and age of posting, plus sort the results by relevance, location, or date posted. Any search you perform can be saved as a Job Search Agent, which sends you email alerts with new jobs matching your selected criteria.
5. Startup Hire
Although it’s technically not restricted just to IT jobs, Startup Hire includes thousands of opportunities at companies backed by venture capital, many of which are positioned within the tech industry. Opportunities range from software engineering and server-side support positions on up into management and executive-level jobs in a number of early to late-stage startups eager to find new IT talent.
6. CyberCoders
From full-time positions to part-time or temporary contract work, CyberCoders can generate worthwhile leads within the tech sector as well as IT-related jobs in other industries from healthcare and education to finance, manufacturing, and biotech. You can search for jobs, submit your resume, and set up job alerts via email based on chosen search terms. They also offer a referral rewards program for bringing friends and colleagues in as users of the site.
7. Glassdoor
This one’s not a job search site, but could be seminal in negotiating your next salary requirements or researching the company culture of your potential offers. Glassdoor posts job salaries by title and industry, actual interview questions used by recruiters and HR personnel, and reviews of companies by employees who currently work or have previously worked at specific businesses.
If you’re fielding an offer or several and want to compare the “inside scoop” on the various companies, Glassdoor could be one of the important tools to help make your final decision. It’s also a great place to do research preparation on particular companies even before applying, or when heading in for an interview.
8. indeed
Although not specific to the technology industry, indeed.com is one of the larger job search engines with over a million available searchable positions and a large international footprint. Here too you can search salary levels to help with negotiations, from over 50 million jobs that were available within the past year.
The site also offers a robust “trends” engine, which graphs the percentage of matching postings based on your keyword searches. This can help identify which sectors and niches are growing and getting hotter, potentially helping you figure out where your chances are optimal or even giving you an idea of what new job skills you might want to pick up or freshen up as you pursue the next stage in your career.
9. Association for Computing Machinery
The ACM’s Career & Job Center brings together computer industry professionals to connect with each other, from job seekers to talent seekers. You can post a resume, search jobs, get customized alerts, and manage your job-related messaging, and check out a number of career resources. From tips on surviving that interview to improving your resume to writing an attention-grabbing cover letter, the ACM content library is also updated with career and industry-related news.
10. IT Toolbox
The Job Center at IT Toolbox is part of a larger knowledge sharing community for information technology professionals, making it a nice well-rounded resource for job searching and skills improvement. An extensive assortment of blogs, wikis, knowledge bases, and groups make IT Toolbox both a resource and a networking opportunity for communicating with peers and connecting with recruiters on topics you know intimately.
(Barb Dybwad is a senior editor at Mashable.)
