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Honest Job Sites?
theirpuppet asks: "I've hit every job site I can find, and it's pretty much impossible to find an honest one. Dice displays the same ads regardless of whether you want the last day's postings or the last week's. Monster sells your email addy to every spammer in the universe. The other ones lie about the amount of viable postings that they have, or they just rip them from Dice/Monster. Where are the honest ones, worth visiting? Yes I know the tricks, don't give your email addy out, apply to the companies directly. But it's not the point. Spending hours a day combing through the same ads over and over in search of one that might be new is ridiculous!"
There are none in my opinion.
The best "job site" I have found is networking the old fashioned way. Calling up old friends and looking around. My parents, friends, their friends, etc. etc. Also, you'll be surprised how easy it is to walk into some places and just ask questions.
Don't settle for that "have you looked at our website?" excuse either, nine times out of ten, that thing isn't updated, ask to talk to someone important. It's a down economy, but good, smart people are always hard to find.
I found my job about a year ago, and I _still_ get calls/emails from the Monster.com Spam Lover's Club.
How is it that the most legitimate source is ridiculous? Ads in the paper are by companies truly looking for someone to hire, not just thinking about maybe hiring someone, as alot of online job sites end up listing. Not to mention that the number of people that reply to newspaper ads is ever shrinking, making your chances of an interview very high.
Of course, if you go into an interview with the same attitude problem you display here, it could be a long wait indeed.
Now is not the time for being picky or elitist. If a company is in business right now, and has been for a few years, they might be stable enough to make it through this drought right now.
Bite the bullet, take a job that is not perfect, and spend your leisure time away from work looking for the "perfect job."
Chances are, there are many people that are in your immediate area that are immensely more qualified than you are, and realising that this is the time to eat some crow.
Also, check out the headhunters in your area. Avoid the newer ones that do most of their stuff online too. The crusty 60 year old guys who've been doing this for 20 or 30 years have the best networks imaginable. Use them to your advantage, they don't get paid until you get a job, and the money usually comes out of your new employers pocket.
The job placement industry is, alas, dominated by moral and technical morons. Yes, there are serious, ethical headhunters who actually try to meet the needs of employers and workers. But they are few and far between. Most are depressingly similar to spam advertisers. They don't care how much of other people's time they waste with cold calls, resume flooding, and sending people to interview on jobs they have no hope of getting. Just as long as they place enough people to meet the rent.
Last time I tried to find a job through techies.com, they allowed you to restrict your search to jobs offered directly. But that was 3 years ago, and they seem to have droped that feature. Cut too much into their revenue stream, I guess.
You simply have to connect directly with the employers. Google is indispensible for this purpose. Every day, do a search on your title and qualifications, and throw in a few keywords that companies tend to use on their jop openings pages, like (duh!) "opening" and "careers".
You should also troll local company sites directly. Make a list of likely employers in your area, and go to their web sites every day. That's how I got my current job.