Job hunting using your PC and the internet

Job hunting has moved on from the days when you had to trawl through a newspaper, circle the vacancies you wanted to apply for and post your CV to a company. Thanks to the internet you can now search, apply and contact potential employers with ease.

The past decade has seen a boom in job forums and websites listing vacancies. According to the government advice site Direct Gov, there are currently around 1,000 job websites in the UK.

There are many reasons you may want to find a new job. Perhaps you need a change from your existing career, have just gained a qualification or maybe you have suffered as a result of the recession and been forced into redundancy or early retirement. Whatever the reason a PC and internet connection can give you a real advantage.

If you are worried that your covering letter or CV won’t live up to the required standards, there are also a range of sites offering advice on how to tailor your resumé for your dream job. We’ll show you how to put your PC to work when job hunting.

Getting started
The first thing to do before thinking about applying for a job is to have a clear understanding of the type of job you are looking for, particularly if you have left your previous job unexpectedly.

This will help you consider the skills and experience to emphasise in your applications and define the best places to look.

The government information site Direct Gov gives some great tips to help you decide what job to apply for.

It advises that people ask themselves honestly what skills and experience they have and consider what job they will fit into.

There is also a job-hunting checklist, which can be downloaded as a PDF file, to help make sure you don’t forget important details.

Job-hunting beginners will find the ‘Find a Job now’ section useful. This includes a job-search function, that lists the current jobs available for a range of sectors.

There are step-by-step instructions on how to use the search tool and handy tips for saving a search so you can return to it later.