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The "Unknown" Free Job Service on the Internet
By Arthur J. Byrnes

Their are many employment resources on the Internet, some are free for employers some are free for job seekers, but very few are free for everyone. One of the free resources for everyone is the Usenet news groups.

Because of today�s point and click, sound and graphics mentality, many Internet users, don�t bother to find out about the news groups. The Usenet news groups go back to before the dawn of the World Wide Web. There are tens of thousands of news groups covering just about every subject imaginable. Every state has at least one jobs group using the states two letter name abbreviation. For Example, Florida�s main jobs group is named fl.jobs.

Accessing the news groups is easy. Your ISP�s help area will give you the settings for their news server. Netscape has a news reader built-in, Microsoft supplies one as part of its Outlook product. Neither of these tools is what the "Power Readers" use as their main news reader, but for the beginner they will do a fair job. Another easy way to read the news is to go to groups.google.com with your web browser.

For "Power Readers" dedicated news reader programs will give you easy to use "Kill files" and other useful tools. These tools can help you to find the articles you are interested in, and more importantly, ignore the noise. Noise is a part of the Usenet experience, and comes from the thoughtless people (and thoughtless companies!) who fail to follow the simple etiquette for posting articles. The news group hierarchy is set up to allow the optimum transfer of information, and when people follow that hierarchy, the noise goes away.

The names of the groups are designed so that you can easily tell the subject of the group. For example, Comp.jobs.contract is where you would look for contract jobs in the computing industry. The messages are much like e-mail. They consist of several fields, a Subject, a Reply to address, and the body text. Depending on your news reader tools, you can search or mask messages based on the contents of these fields, and the name of the group.

The etiquette for posting to the jobs group is simple. First spend a lot of time reading the group! A job should only be posted in the groups that are relevant to the job. A job in Florida should only be posted in the fl.jobs groups that make sense. A Florida job that requires the employee to show up at the work place, should not be posted in fl.jobs.telecomute. It can be posted in fl.jobs, it may also be posted in the misc.jobs.offered group. It should not be posted in az.jobs (Arizona jobs) or even ga.jobs (Georgia jobs).

Some silly recruiters think that Georgia and Florida are the same state, others have no manners at all and post NY, Cal, and Seattle jobs in the wrong places. These companies then wonder why they get few responses or poor responses. Regular readers know that this poor posting practice shows that the company has no respect for the rest of the world. Be careful applying for a job through those companies. Respect is an important part of the job search process! Besides if they can�t follow simple rules, can you trust them with your career?

The subject format for jobs groups messages is very simple and easy to use. This standard lets a reader get the important information quickly without having to waste time reading a message that has no relevance for them.. The jobs groups get hundreds of messages a day so the posting format is important if you want people to read your message.

The important information about a job is its location, and job description, so the subject for a visual basic programmer in Orlando, Florida would look like this;

"US-FL-ORL-Programmer VB"

The same job in Tampa would be;

"US-FL-TAMPA-Programmer VB"

If you are posting only in the fl.jobs groups, you can leave off the "US", but this format makes it easier to use the same message in the applicable non state groups. Some news reader programs only display the first 25-35 characters of the subject, so it is in your best interest to use this easy to scan subject format. The dollar signs, stars or other characters that some folks use to attract attention actually use up valuable space and cause people to skip the message.

The body text of the message is where you describe the job, and say all the great stuff about your company. You should also list all the qualifications that you expect from the applicant. You should list your company�s contact information, and your preferred method of resume reception, (e-mail or snail mail and fax). Some companies mention a salary range, but remember while the employer sees the lower range number, the employee sees the higher number.

A job seeker should never reply to the newsgroup to apply or ask about a posted job, mainly because most posters don�t read the groups regularly. Use e-mail, or even pick up the phone and call.

Although there are many *.jobs.resumes group, it is not a good idea for a job seeker to post his/her full resume. Most companies don�t scan the resumes groups looking for job seekers and a well done resume usually doesn�t look very good when posted as text only. The news reader programs may not keep your spacing and formatting, making it look messy. A simple message stating your job description, e-mail address and availability, may catch a recruiter�s eye. I have yet to hear from a job seeker who landed a job by posting in the resumes groups, if you have, send me an e-mail about your experience.

Arthur J. Byrnes, regularly scans the fl.jobs groups, looking for;
US-FL-DAB-Comp-Writer-Big-Money

On-line he runs Arthur�s Job Base, "A reviewed list of job links."

http://www.ajb.com

Some jobs groups;

**.jobs Replace the stars with the 2 letter state abrev.

fl.jobs Postings of jobs within Florida, ny.jobs Postings of jobs within New York, etc.

fl.jobs.computers Computer jobs in Florida

fl.jobs.computers.programming Computer programming jobs in Florida

fl.jobs.telecommute Telecommuting jobs (I�ve yet to see a real one!)

can.jobs Canadian jobs

ba.jobs Bay area (San Francisco) jobs

alt.jobs.as400System AS400 jobs

alt.jobs.overseas Jobs all over (The USA is "overseas" if you live in Europe.)

comp.jobs.offered Computer jobs

misc.jobs.offered the catchall jobs group

Here is a Newsgroup reader tool;
Free Agent also a mail reader

groups.google.com (Used to be Deja.com) allows you to read the news groups using your browser, with no special programs. Its a little slower than a dedicated news reader, but they carry almost all the jobs groups, and the search engine works real well.

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