Are you one of the 2.2 million people who read the NY Post on a daily basis? If so, you may have stumbled across an article on the front page of the “@ WORK” section today titled “The Site Stuff – Our picks for what’s new, notable and work-related on the Web”. And in case you didn’t pick up the latest edition of the NY Post, I thought I would take the opportunity to share the insightful article by Brian Moore and Chris Erickson.
The article is comprised of a list of eleven unique career-related sites that according to the writers are “worth a click.” See below for the full article and feel free to chime in with any other cool career-related sites the article may have forgotten.
The Site Stuff
By now we all know Monster.com and LinkedIn, but practically every day new Web sites launch that aim to help you find jobs, stay on top of your industry, improve your career prospects or otherwise help you along in your work life. We sifted through the latest offerings and compiled the following list of sites that are worth a click.
Brazen Careerist
Imagine a slam mix of LinkedIn and Facebook catering to the professional networking needs of Gen Yers, and you’ve imagined Brazen Careerist. The idea behind the site is to combine the professional foundation of the former with the interactive, social features of the latter so younger workers can actively create a professional network.
Careerist profiles focus on ideas rather than the job experience that LinkedIn emphasizes, says CEO Penelope Trunk.
“There’s a reason why the average age of a LinkedIn user is 40,” she says. “Brazen Careerist levels the playing field.”
Careerist takes its Gen Y mandate seriously in other ways, as well — its blog is filled with how-to videos which spare young up-and-comers the trouble of reading, you know, words and stuff. brazencareerist.com
Bintro
Bintro is a job-search site that uses inferential matching rather than keyword-based matching. So if a trapeze artist is looking for a job, Bintro won’t simply search for trapeze artist openings but for all job listings that come under the broader rubric of performer.
“We’re looking at the [general] definition of what you told us,” says CEO Richard Stanton.
Bintro has some other notable features. Every 3.5 seconds, it re-searches its database for matches. It’s free to both potential employees and employers. And it allows potential matches to communicate anonymously, so you can keep your job search on the DL if, say, you’re currently employed. bintro.com
Jobulous
Manhattan-based Jobulous is the latest in a series of sites designed to give the inside scoop on working at a given company, direct from anonymous employees. Founder Ross Siegel launched it after he graduated from business school at NYU and going to work for a new media company that had a great rep but proved a disappointment. Having had more info before taking the job would have spared him the trouble, he figured.
Hence, Jobulous, where visitors post “job reviews” that cover how much they earn, what the workplace culture is like, how their bosses treat them, and so forth. Then they can peruse others’ ratings, which can be searched in various ways. Given the newness of the site, it has yet to generate a meaningful database of responses, but it’s smartly put together. Jobulous.com
Tweet My Jobs
Twitter is nothing if not fast, and Tweet My Jobs is a free job search engine that puts that idea into play for job seekers. The process is simple: post your resume and a brief “tweet” about yourself and the type of job you’re looking for. When a job match appears, you’ll receive instant notification — perfect for Twitter obsessives who constantly check their cellphones for updates. To keep you from being buried under an avalanche of other tweeting job seekers, the site allows you to “retweet” your resume every 24 hours so you can stay at the top of the list.
Tweet My Jobs looks to be a killer ap, at least until someone comes up with Pwicter.com, where people send messages using only 25 or fewer emoticons. Give it six months. Guaranteed. Tweetmyjobs.com
CoWorkers
This brand-new site follows the model of Ed Koch, who as mayor famously queried constituents with “How’m I doin’?” The concept is to aim that question at work colleagues, requesting feedback by forwarding various review forms for them to fill out. In addition to general reviews of your job performance, you can request feedback on your interpersonal skills or “core values,” as well as on a specific achievement such as a report or a presentation.
The site — which calls itself a “career development and reputation management” tool — offers a dizzying number of options. Feedback can be made anonymously or not, it can be requested or offered unprompted. Results can be kept private or made public for bosses and recruiters to see, and can be viewed in various formats, such as graphs and pie charts. So it takes some navigating, but it may be worth it to see how you stack up in your colleagues’ eyes. Coworkers.com
FiredUp Network
In spite of its name, the Manhattan-based FiredUpNetwork.com is primarily a resource site and secondarily a networking site. Expanding the range of possibilities for the unemployed beyond simply outlining resources for finding work, the site lets visitors research opportunities such as starting a new business, potential business investors, post-graduate degrees and buying or selling a business.
“It’s kind of like Linked-In meets Wikipedia,” says founder Matthew Pizzi. “I basically created a foundation of starting points, of resources. Now it’s up to the community to use them and add to them.” Firedupnetwork.com
Zoosa
For those of the do-gooder persuasion, zoosa.org is the site to visit. It lists jobs and volunteer positions in the clean-tech, education and non-profit arenas. It’s a perfect destination for those who can’t find a job but would like to keep their skills hot by volunteering for a nonprofit, a move that networking experts say can often lead to a paying gig. zoosa.org
How I Got Laid Off
It’s no surprise that not all employers handle layoffs gracefully. HowI-GotLaidOff.com is a blog that calls these reprobates on the carpet, allowing victims to chronicle their horrific tales of getting the boot. And horrific they are, from a p.r. exec who was fired by her alcoholic boss after her abusive husband attacked her at work to a nonprofit worker in Kenya who got canned after witnessing the misappropriation of funds. (Naturally, his boss waited until after he finished a seven-day stint laid up in a rural Kenyan hospital before letting him go.) Visitors can submit their own tales of woe or spend hours reading about the misery of others. The blog won’t land you a job, but it’ll make you feel better about not having one. HowIGotLaidOff.com
Path 101
Path 101 is for job seekers wrestling with the ultimate question of what they really want to do. It has a personality test, career advice and a fancy resume analysis service that helps users pinpoint, among other things, where their skills are valued and what skills they need if they want to make a career switch. All you have to do is upload your resume.
Rather than finding specific jobs, “We’re more focused on helping people figure out what they want to do and where they might fit,” says CEO Charlie O’Donnell.
In a couple of weeks, Path 101 will add a search function to its resume database, allowing employers and others to take a gander.
Beyond
Beyond.com compiles job listings and resumes from about 15,000 niche job sites from around the country broken down by industry (e.g., accounting) and geography (e.g., Miami). The result is a more targeted approach to the job-seeking process which eliminates much of the dross, particularly for employers seeking candidates.
Just for laughs, we searched for “shoemaker,” figuring the career is about as niche as you could get, and actually found a listing, for a shoe-designing job at Oakley, the sunglasses firm. Then again, the search also yielded an accounting professorship in Nebraska, with resumes submitted to a certain Dr. Shoemaker. beyond.com
The Office
Here at @work we’re attuned to what wage slaves really need, so to that end this list wouldn’t be complete without a Web site that offers cube jocks nothing more useful than a prime way to waste time. At “The Office” home page, you can indulge in the great workplace tragicomedy with archived episodes as well as games and other extras. nbc.com/The_Office
