We’ve already covered the basics: CVs, Virtual CVs, Jobs Boards and Covering Letters .  Most employers are looking to see a CV these days.  Many will insist on an application form being filled out, which does the same job, except for the trick Extra Info bit at the end.  (I’ll probably blog about that in a later post.)  So, do online profiles really matter?  If an employer receives your CV or form, do they even take the time to look you up online?  Yes.  Suffice to say, they might.

What does your online profile say about you?

Does it show you in all sorts of compromising poses, or states of inebriation?  People do indeed have the right to enjoy their down time.  However, what you make public says much about how you view yourself and how you respect others, family and friends, who may be embarrassed by your antics and words.

There have been several high profile cases recently.  The one you may be most familiar with is this:

The M16 Ambassador to the UN whose wife revealed details of their flat and children on Facebook

Of course, there are admittedly admirable, flattering and interesting cases, too:

The tweeting PM’s wife

Restrict what the public can see

If you are in the market for a change in career, my advice is to use all tools at your disposal, to keep private what could compromise your opportunities of gaining a new position.  It may matter more the higher up an organisation you travel.  It is likely that more research will be conducted into your background.

I do not feel personal Facebook profiles currently offer a professional looking image to showcase your skills.  Many people use Facebook however.  It may simply be worth limiting personal stuff to people you place on a separate Personal Friends list, and keeping basic work information (including media where relevant) open to Professional Friends list and/or the general public.  Those who look for you there will find you, but the information is strictly cringe-free.

With sites such as Twitter, you are sometimes able to make the profile temporarily private, or restricted only to those who ‘follow’ or ‘friend’ you.  This is a straightforward solution.  You need not delete your profile.  Just be thoughtful about the effect its appearance may have on a prospective employer.

Revamp all profiles to reflect the role you want

You could be very clever, and revamp the business or work sections of your online locations to reflect the role you would like.  If prospective employers are searching via keywords or industries for candidates on sites such as LinkedIn, they are more likely to arrive at your profile.

Remember, be smart.  Do not lie, and avoid exaggeration.  You could find you are asked about something that appears on an online profile that you chose to leave off the application form.  In that situation, you are not prepared to be quizzed on it.

Take your time writing about each previous role you have had.  Sites such as Visual CV and LinkedIn offer free text boxes in addition to factual space for you to highlight key responsibilities and really make your portfolio sing.  There’s opportunity for testimonials from previous colleagues, bosses and clients.  This makes for very rounded profile for a prospective employer.  I find it helps add a little something when pitching for a contract.  In addition, with VisualCV, you can add media to enhance your profile.

If you need any assistance on how to do this, leave a comment below.  Or, if there are any other topics you’d like me to hit in this series, again, drop a comment in.  Love to hear from you!

An excellently written covering letter will ensure your CV is at least glanced at.  Keep it short.  Avoid colour and exhuberant formatting.  And, pay attention to the following, crucial elements:

Addresses

• Include your address first, followed by the name, title and address of the person you are writing to.  Pay attention to the details.  Do not spell names incorrectly.  (You know how annoyed people get about that?)  Make sure you have the correct postcode.  (Look up postcodes with Royal Mail or addresses with PostcodeAnywhere.)
• Punctuation in addresses in letters like this is optional, in the sense that it is no longer required.  My advice is to avoid using it, in order to avoid using it inconsistently.
• Use one or two spaces to separate out the addresses, from the date and the date from the salutation and so on…

Date

• Do not neglect to include the date.  (This is a very common mistake.)  Use whichever format you prefer.  Wednesday, 14th July 2009 and 14/07/09 are both fine, for example.
• Leave one clear, paragraph space below the date.

Salutation and Signoff

• Dear John/Mr John Bartholemew is paired with Yours sincerely (Where you do you the name of the person you are writing to.)  It is entirely acceptable to drop the traditional comma following Dear Sir/Mr Bartholemew.
• Dear Sir is paired with Yours faithfully (Where you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to.)
• Leave one clear, paragraph space below the salutation and sign-off.

Opening and Closing Paragraph

State the reason for the letter.

• With reference to your advertisement for a Personal Assistant/Senior Developer/Part-time Accountant…

Make a call to action at the close.

• Please let me know if you think my CV matches your requirements.
• Please contact me to arrange a meeting to discuss the openings/possibilities.

Main Body

State why you think you’d be a good match for the job.

• Highlight – rather than list – your major achievements in previous positions.
• Highlight your most relevant qualifications.
• Two or three short paragraphs (two to three sentences each) should be sufficient.  Avoid using a second page.
• Use one paragraph between paragraphs.
• Avoid indented paragraphs; they are outdated.

Spelling and Grammar

• Do not make mistakes in this area.  It makes your letter difficult to read, and makes you seem unprofessional.
• If English is not your first language, then you must look it up or ask a professional friend (whose first language is English) to check it over for you.  We’ve received multiple CVs with this particular problem.  The English is so poor, we simply give up and discard the letters.

Better again, if you’re completely stuck and really can’t figure out where to begin, send in your CV and job description and we will do it for you.  You can then use this template to write additional covering letters for different types of posts.

If you’ve been following the series, you’ll know that I’m looking at How to Get a Job in the Recession.  So far, we’ve looked at CVs and Virtual CVs.

This week, it’s Jobs Boards – how to find a job online.  I’ve listed some international sites, along with mostly Ireland and UK sites.  And, I’ve included an array of websites that advertise projects for the freelancers among you too, including a few sites where you can add a profile and search projects seeking professionals of all types.  I’ve highlighted significant or unusual features in bold.  (And, if you send me your suggestions, these will also be added, together with a link to your online profile or website.)

Websites for Jobseekers in Northern Ireland

These websites are almost exclusively for those looking for a job in Northern Ireland.

Abacus

This site lists jobs available in Northern Ireland.  Abacus is on Twitter.  (What’s Twitter?  If you want a little light reading, try some of these latest posts mentioning Twitter right here on the blog.)

Business First Online

NI magazine website advertising managerial and IT-related

postitions.

Community NI

Central place for community and volunatary sector training, events, news and jobs in NI.  You can also post your own events and jobs free of charge.

CPL NI – New!!

Recruitment service for the Northern Ireland marketplace.

Craigslist Belfast

International site for classified-type listings of all types.  This Belfast section has a Jobs list.  Click a category to see what is available.  (Unfortunately many of the jobs listings are polluted with people searching for work, which makes for lots of trawling.)

Guardian

The Northern Ireland filter generally displays 40-50 jobs.  The listings are well worth a look, as they tend to be the more interesting and better-paid posts.

GumTree

Very similar to Craigslist.  (With similar searching problems.)

DEL Jobcentre Online

Small amount of NI jobs listed.  Listings are dominated by Sales Occupations and Catering and Hospitality.  It also lists a few Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing positions.

NIJobfinder

This is – in my humble opinion – the best jobs site for Northern Ireland.  It looks good, it feels good and it functions good. Jobs are available in multiple categories, and can be filtered in multiple ways: Industry; Salary; Job Role; Date Posted; Recruiter Type and Contract Type. (Also lists jobs in Dublin, Leitrim and Kerry.)

NIJobs

This site lists jobs, which can be filtered by recruiter type, job category, location and keyword.  It has a substantial amount of jobs available.

QUB – New site!!

This listing includes positions in the following categories:

• Academic Jobs – professorships, lectureships, teaching fellows
• Professional Support Jobs – professional administration and general management, including specialisms such as IT, finance and personnel, press and PR, qualified librarians
• Clerical Jobs – clerical officers, secretaries, receptionists, library assistants
• Research Jobs - research fellows and assistants, knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) associates
• Technical Jobs – scientific, engineering, medical and computer support technicians
• Other Jobs – cleaners, caterers, porters, security.

RecruitNI

RecruitNI is also on Twitter.  (What’s Twitter?  If you want a little light reading, try some of these latest posts mentioning Twitter right here on the blog.)

SalesNetNI

An NI consultancy that ‘specialises in placing high calibre sales professionals‘.  (Thanks to @internetsense who sent this in along with a few others.)

University of Ulster

At the time of updating this article (15/07/09), this site contained only nine vacancies, mostly academic.

Websites for Jobseekers in Ireland

These websites are almost exclusively for those looking for a job in Ireland.

CPL Jobs

Website for Irish jobseekers.  RSS feeds are available.

Indeed

Search for jobs in ROI only.

Jobs Ireland

You need to register for this service in order to use it.

Websites for Jobseekers in the UK

These websites are almost exclusively for those looking for a job in the UK.  (They often include Northern Ireland listings.)

Addictive Creatives - New!!

This is a very new website and may not be listing many jobs just yet. (May 2011)  For recruiters, the cost is low, £3-5 per posting.

CareerJet

“Careerjet is an employment search engine.”  It is searchable via multiple industry categories and locations.  Thanks to Matthew who sent this one in.

Careers Seeker

This job lists jobs throughout the UK.  Here is the Northern Ireland link.

Creative Boom Jobs Board – New!!

“All the latest jobs for the Creative Industries.”

CW Jobs

In their own words, ‘The IT Specialist’.  (Click here for NI only.)

JobsToday

UK Jobs listed by region and by county.

Technojobs

“A leading IT and Technical recruitment site – we’re a great resource for job seekers looking for both contract and permanent roles.”  Thanks Helen for submitting this one!

The IT Job Board

As they say themselves, ‘Your future in IT is our job’.  You can upload your CV and/or choose to receive jobs by email.  It is searchable by keyword.

Twitter Job Finder UK

This public Twitter stream aggregates job alerts from throughout the UK.  (There is no indication of what sources are used, so do not assume this lists all UK jobs.)  If you want to get these jobs into your inbox, you will have to open a Twitter account.  This is free.

Websites for Jobseekers Worldwide

These websites list jobs available worldwide.

37signals Jobs Board

Apple, The New York Times, CNET, Facebook, Adobe, Trek and American Express use this site to search out the ‘best web minds’.  It now includes internships

Craigslist

International site for classified-type listings of all types.  Choose a city, then click Jobs

FreshWebJobs

This site describes itself as ‘a job board for web pros’.  It has permanent and freelance positions.  The majority are located in the USA, but some are marked UK or Anywhere/Remote (especially the freelance ones).

Guardian

This site caters for every searching preference by categorising jobs by industry; location; salary; contract; hours and employer type.  It also has a short profile for each of its recruiting employers.

GumTree

International site for classified-type listings of all types.  Choose a city, then click Jobs

Krop

‘Krop is a Job Board and career resource website for creative professionals’.  In practice, this site lists jobs for Americans. It wouldn’t do any harm to set up an email alert by location though.  This is available under the Location and Keyword boxes once you perform a search.

LinkedIn

You need to have a profile set up to access this jobs list.

Websites for Freelancers Searching for Projects and Contracts

These sites are typically for those who can work anywhere in the world (unless otherwise indicated).  They are mainly, but not exclusively for those who can perform their work online or at least on a computer.

Blogger Jobs

Paid (and unpaid!) blogging opportunities.  You can post your resume and links to previous work.

CoderStack – New!!

“CoderStack was founded by developers who wanted a quality source of software developer jobs.”  Thanks to Mark for sending this one in.

Collab.ie

New resource – currently for Irish collaborators only.  It brings together people with ideas for new projects/busineses with those who have skills in relavant areas.

Contracted Work

Advertises professional jobs for those in the USA only.

Flexitimers

Freelance, contract and consulting work in Ireland.  (Thanks to Joy Redmond for submitting this one.)

Freelance Supermarket

This website showcases freelance services and advice (on Umbrella organisations for example), including jobs.

Freelance Switch

This site offers seven categories of worldwide freelance projects.  Most fall into the online development and design niche.  It also has an excellent blog concentrating on the issues surrounding being a freelance worker.  Typical job: jQuery Wizard.  To save me the trouble, this site also lists The Monster List of Freelancing Job Sites

Freelance UK

Lists of freelance jobs in the following broad categories: Design (Graphic, Web and CAD); Photography; Marketing; Public Relations; Journalism and Copywriting.  There is also a reasonably active forum and other pages on running a freelance business: Tax and Legal; Money; Sales/Marketing and Technology.

Freelancer Network

This site has a very useful job (topic and) location dropdown list.  You can search via Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK, USA (incuding individual states), Australia and so on.  (The Go button to search based on your location preferences is hideously difficult to see.  It’s located just right of the skills input box.)

Freelancers in the UK

This website lists the following categories of freelance opportunities in editoritial fields such as proofreadin,g copywriting, editing, rewriting, ghostwriting, journalism, promotional literature, web content and scriptwriting.  They have also added Media, IT, Gastronomic, Design, Financial, Heath and Trade.

Freelance Writers

Add your profile and get listed as a freelancer, by area and by service provided.  Lists projects and freelance opportunities in multiple areas (Northern Ireland; UK; France; The Netherlands; Turkey; Finland; Singapore; South Africa and the USA).

Get a Freelancer

This site lists projects in multiple categories.  You can also add a profile, which is searchable by people with projects who are looking for someone to fulfill certain tasks.  They work on an countdown system, so you have only a certain time to apply.  The average price offered to complete each project is also listed.

Helium

Freelance Writers worldwide marketplace.  Paid projects are listed on the Marketplace page.  You can also set up a profile, to which all public articles you write are attached.  They are based on a writing system, where you can select from suggsted topics and are then rated by other Helium writers.  This guide supplies help on how to earn money at Helium.  This site might help supplement your writing career (or help you get feedback on your writing), rather than supply a constant stream of work.

NoAgenciesPlease

Although this site supplies international (and some remote) opportunities, it does list a large number of UK vacancies in two very basic lists: Jobs and Projects.

Push 1 Freelance – New!!

Freelance jobs, contracts and projects for creatives and web developers.

The Burry Man Writers Centre

HUGE international resource list of projects, positions (and other resources) for freelance writers of all types.

Recruitment Agencies and Job Sites Directories

Agency Central

Used by recruitment agencies and jobseekers, searched by employers.

Grafton Recruitment

This site lists jobs available in multiple categories, searchable via every county in Ireland.  There is a limited amount of information available on international opportunities.  You can store you CV for future use and the home page lists recently-added jobs.  Grafton Recruitment is also on Twitter

This list will be added to as I get emailed and tweeted additional sites.  Please continue to send them in, or add a comment.  I’d love to see your favourite jobsites listed here.  You’ll even get a mention and a link to your online profile!