There are several Web-based tools to help you prepare for your job search and manage the various activities associated with your career transition. The goal of these applications is to organize all of your job search activities into one centralized location. Some provide you with excellent resources and tools. Each site offers either a complimentary tour or trial period. Some of the tools these sites offer include:
Career Planning
- Career assessments, career profiles and occupational research
Research
- Industry research (industry overview, trends & forecasts, business challenges)
- Company/Organization research (revenues, financial information, size, number of employees, locations)
- Contact research including executives and employees in targeted companies (employee names, titles, contact information, etc.)
- Researched articles written by executives and employees of target companies
- Website and media links (corporate press releases, etc.)
Tools and Resources
- Job board postings and feeds (customizable selection)
- Contact management (new entries and imports)
- Embedded links (LinkedIn, Indeed)
- Resume and cover letter advice
- Libraries and resources
- Journals
- Account Sharing with your Career Coach (optional)
3 Top Career Management Tools
1) Career Beam – www.careerbeam.com
According to Colleen Sabatino, President of Career Beam, “98% of companies are private companies, and 97% of these aren’t using job postings services to source their best talent.” She also states that, “posting your resume and responding to online job postings will get you access to roughly 20% of available positions in the market and only about 4% of positions are actually filled in this manner.”
Colleen further states that “you need a process for navigating your career in a market that almost exclusively operates outside of traditional job posting sites.” “The other 80% of opportunities can be identified and captured, but only by those individuals who know what they want, are able to communicate it effectively, and know how to implement a strategic search process.”
Highlights of CareerBeam’s Unique Features:
Organization database includes U.S.- and Canadian-based companies. The search categories include: company selection, location selection, industry & size selection, contact selection, recruiter selection. Information is sourced through Hoovers and other subscription sites.
International database includes any company with a foreign presence. This includes US-owned companies with a foreign presence as well as foreign-owned companies.
Contact Research – LinkedIn is embedded in the system so you can log in and do research without leaving CareerBeam.
Job Search – ZoomInfo is embedded in the system. You can pull up company information including summary, revenues, employee size, key people, description, products and services, competitors, news information, and job postings listed on ZoomInfo.
Job Postings – Search for job postings using CareerBeam’s search tool. The General Postings pull from CareerBuilder and the Company Postings pull from Indeed.
Target companies – Search for target companies by location or SIC / NAICS codes.
Functionality – Offers ability to research and track company, schedule activities, insert follow up reminders, and add notes.
Research On Demand – “research on demand” allows you to request research on companies not currently in the database.
Industry Overview – Provides comprehensive industry information including: Competitive landscape, Products, Operations & Technology, Recent Developments, Business Challenges / Critical Issues, Business Trends & Industry Opportunities, Executive Insight (Challenges & Issues by function (CEO, CFO, HR, Sales), Financial Information, Industry Forecast, Website and Media Links, Glossary of Acronyms
Company / Industry Research Preparation – Includes call preparation questions and conversation starters such as: How cyclical is the firm’s business? How does the firm ensure regulatory compliance? How much of an overseas’ presence does the firm have?
Account Management – When Logging out, you have the ability to send your coach a note on activities completed (Coach-Supported membership only).
Member Support – Quick Start Guide and Videos (online help system), Q&A (for website questions)
2) JibberJobber – www.jibberjobber.com
JibberJobber is a powerful tool that lets you manage your career, from job search to relationship management to target company management (and much more).
Jason Alba designed JibberJobber to be complementary to any career or networking resource you can find, including job boards, recruiters and headhunters, career coaches, networking books, social networks, and more.
Highlights of JibberJobber’s Unique Features:
Manage Prospective Employers: Enter and track prospective employer information and log communications and activities (including which resume and cover letter you sent foe each opportunity.)
Manage Recruiter Relationships: Enter and track recruiting company information and log communications and activities.
Manage Job Boards: Enter job board information and log activity.
Manage Your Personal Network: Enter, categorize, assign tags and rank contact information, log activities, and set relationship goals. You can import your Twitter, Gmail, and Outlook contacts.
Manage Action Items: Create action items on multiple job postings, companies, recruiters, boards, network contacts and receive action items in your email.
Track Jobs That You Apply For: Create “job posting” to track status and events, update status of each posting, and track which resume, cover letter, etc. you sent.
Manage Documents: Store career marketing documents.
Prepare for Interviews: Enter 30-second elevator pitch, T.O.P.(trends, opportunities, problems) responses, C.A.R. (challenge, action, results) stories, and questions to ask the interviewer.
Track Expenses: Log expenses and mileage.
Job Journal: Enter and track accomplishments for job search and promotions.
Coaching Sessions: Manage coach relationships.
3) CareerShift – www.careershift.com
CareerShift’s set of tools and applications provide a complete career management system specifically for job seekers. Owners, Valerie and Mark Matta launched the site in May 2007.
CareerShift lets you tap into the power of the Internet with a set of patent-pending research tools, techniques and online applications. CareerShift uses dynamic linking to “publicly posted” information on the Internet and presents the information in a user-friendly format. CareerShift centralizes your information on the site and enables you to store, organize and manage information relevant to your job search. With dynamic linking, the information the system finds and presents is real time and most likely current.
CareerShift enables you to transition seamlessly between open positions, job opportunities, company information, and networking opportunities at a particular company.
Highlights of CareerShift’s Unique Features:
Job Search – Meta job search engine/aggregator that will bring in job postings from their original destination (newspaper, corporate website, association, job board).
You can then search for employees within the company and CareerShift will provide contact information, articles, press mentions, etc. affiliated with that individual so you can network with an internal employee.
Company Research – Search for companies that do business in a particular field in a specific city or state. Results provide a link to the company’s website where you can find additional open positions, company details, and contacts in the company.
People Search – Search for people in a particular geographic region that hold positions similar to the position being sought. Then cross-reference search by industry, alumni or school attended to find commonality consequently making you feel more comfortable with initial contact.
Mailing Campaigns – Create, print and execute campaigns (email and physical) from saved contacts or newly added contacts. System includes automated, customizable document/list merge system that merges the cover letter and appropriate resume for the mailing.
Calendaring – After completing a campaign, use MY CALENDAR to alert you to follow-up with prospective employers.
Functionality – Upload and store resumes and cover letters or use CareerShift’s wizard to create documents.
Support – Includes Live Help Desk with 800 number or email support and a blog.