In the past month, I’ve applied to more jobs than I remember. I’ve also used several search engines, each with a varying degree of success. I thought it would be only fair to write about my experiences.

Monster.com: The granddaddy of job search engines. Or at least, it’s the first one I’d heard of. Monster has a lot of free bells and whistles in terms of advice. They even have a diversity section ( I know! Perfect for those of us who are non-white and/or non-male or any combination thereof). Their job matches didn’t seem particularly memorable, although a couple of employers contacted me on their own after seeing my resume on there. Which means that it is apparently drawing in the employers, if not accurate job matches.

Hot jobs: the only site to help me find stuff that’s entry level. Their filter seems to work far better than most other companies. Their job selection also seems to touch on jobs that I don’t see in other engines. That said, their selection is much more limited than everyone else.

Washington Post: good selection of jobs in the DC area. However half of those jobs are for people with 10 years exp even though I explicitly said entry-level. I later found out that the Post sends me any job that matches even 10 percent of my requirements. Apparently work experience was not deemed to be part of said 10 percent.

Indeed: wide selection, pulls in stuff from everywhere, although each time I use it, the search results keep getting less and less relevant.

Higheredjobs.com: Back when I thought I’d love a career in edcation proper. I still think I’d like a career in education writing. Unfortunately Highered isn’t going to help with that. It tells me that there are no jobs to match my search agent. What are my search agent requirements? Any job in the education field involving communications– writing, editing the like. Yes, I can see why they can’t find me jobs. It’s not like universities have alumni and staff magazines. Oh wait… yes they do.

Careerbuilder: Careerbuilder really tries. It sends me job matches in various categories, from entry-level to close locations. The problem? Same as most of the other engines– it’s filtering system is mediocre. Half the jobs I get are for people with six years experience. This, even though I tried to filter those out. I do like the chipper emails they send me though. Emails that end with “don’t worry if you don’t get this job you applied for! Here’s some more!”

Craigslist.org:
Brilliant for local jobs. It has a good telecommuting section as well. That said, there are only so many jobs on here. So it’s only good as a supplemental job classifieds place.