Free Guides to a Shorter and Smarter Job Search

All of Job-Hunt’s Guides are at NO COST for any job seeker to use.

Each Guide is comprised of articles on a specific job search topic: job interviews, LinkedIn, resumes, layoff recovery, reputation management, and more than forty other topics.

If you are not a job seeker and wish to use any of the Job-Hunt Guides, contact us for permission. These Guides are protected by U.S. Copyright law. Do NOT republish or sell any of these Guides in the USA or anywhere else.

On this page:

Online Job Search Tools, Work from Home, Traditional Job Search Process and Tools, Avoiding Job Search Hazards, Handling Career Change, Unemployment, and Job Loss, New Grads, Veterans, Boomers, Introverts, and Other Groups, Government, IT, Finance, and Other Industries, and Free ebooks About Job Search.

Expert Advice in Job-Hunt’s Guides

Reader’s Digest describes Job-Hunt.Org as “vacuum-packed with solid advice.” The Guides described (and linked) below will make it clear why that description fits.

Each Guide is written by one or more experts in that field. These experts constantly contribute articles critical to successful job search.

Scroll down this page to find the Guides divided into topic and sub-topics.

Guides to Online Job Search Tools

In the last few years, technology has dramatically changed how employers find and hire employees. And, those changes in recruiting have impacted job search in ways that job seekers have never seen before.

Understanding the new technology, from how to use Google and social media (particularly LinkedIn) to effectively using job boards and even email, is essential now. These links take you to Job-Hunt Guides on those topics:

• • Guide to Finding Jobs Online
    This Guide shows where jobs are posted online.
  • Guide to Personal SEO
    This Guide helps you understand how important “search engine optimization” (SEO) is to a modern job search. Learn what your keywords are, and where (and how) to make them visible to recruiters, employers, and other potential members of your network.
    • Guide to Being Found on LinkedIn (LinkedIn SEO) helps you understand how to apply SEO principles to LinkedIn so that you have the right keywords for you in the right spots in your LinkedIn Profile.
  • Guide to Social Media & Job Search
    This Guide gives you an over-view of the major current social media networks and how you can leverage them for your job search.
    • Guide to Using LinkedIn for Job Search
      LinkedIn is, by far, the dominant social network for professionals managing their careers as well as looking for new jobs.
      • Guide to LinkedIn for Executives
        Even executives need a LinkedIn presence for their professional visibility and credibility. It will be checked by competitors, colleagues, and potential employers.
    • Guide to Facebook for Job Search
      Facebook can be very effective for job search. It can also be very damaging. This Guide helps you leverage Facebook for positive results in your job search.
    • Guide to Twitter Job Search
      Twitter can be an excellent source of job leads for the employers and fields you follow. Twitter can also be very helpful in identifying good contacts and expanding your network.
  • Guide to Personal Branding
    Like personal SEO (above), personal branding is a new necessity for both your career and your job search. This Guide helps you understand the basic concept and also to discover/develop your personal brand, plus where and how to make it visible so that it helps your job search.
    • • Guide to Personal Branding with LinkedIn
        LinkedIn is an essential part of online visibility for most professionals, and, done well, LinkedIn can be the foundation for your personal brand, whether you are building it, maintaining it, or changing it.
      • Free ebook about personal branding –
        • Personal Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile
          LinkedIn is a very important tool for building your personal brand. Particularly if you are an executive, this ebook helps you leverage your personal brand using LinkedIn.
        • Personal Marketing Plan
          This ebook helps you to pull all of the pieces together to create a solid personal brand and then to leverage social media to make progress in your job search.

     

     

• Guide to Personal Online Reputation Management
  Your personal online reputation has a much bigger impact on your job search and career than you may know. Having a poor — or no — online reputation may eliminate you from consideration.
• Guide to Using Google for Your Job Search
  Google offers job seekers many tools to help them manage their job hunting, and this Guide explains how to use those tools successfully, starting with more effective search queries.
• Guide to Email for Job Search
  Email is essential for communication now, but it can cause problems and cost opportunities if used inappropriately in a job search. This Guide shows you how to use email most effectively in your job search.
• Guide to Job Boards
  From Indeed.com (today’s largest source of job postings in the world) to Craigslist’s local online classified, job boards are everywhere. Some are excellent, some are not particularly useful, and some are downright dangerous (or, simply scams). This Guide helps you analyze job boards and use them appropriately, particularly Indeed and Craigslist.

Guides to Working from Home

More options for earning a living are developing. For some people and some situations, being a “temp” is the best option — generating income working for a temporary staffing agency. This avoids needing to go to an employer’s location, and offers the ability to “test” different employers and jobs.

For many of us, technology is enabling more of us to work from our homes. Employers are allowing — or encouraging — employees to work from their homes as “remote workers” or “telecommuters.” In addition, many people are turning to self-employment as a good option, working when, where, and how they choose.

• Guide to Work From Home Jobs
  Working from home can take many different forms, from working “remotely” for your employer to running your own business. This Guide helps you understand your options and choose a direction that will work best for you.
• Guide to Gigs, Freelance,and Contracting Jobs
  These can become great careers or a way to fill an “employment gap” while you look for a “real job.” They can also be a great way to work from home, generating income, working when and where you want.
• Guide to the Temporary Work Option
  Working for a temporary agency which connects you to short-term jobs can be an excellent way to explore new careers, get a “foot in the door” with a new employer (while deciding if you would like to work there), fill an employment gap on your resume, or just generate income without worrying about getting along with co-workers.

Guides to Traditional Job Search Process and Tools

While technology has had an enormous impact, resumes are still very important, and job interviews usually clinch the job offer (when done well). Also smart job seekers understand what recruiters want, how to leverage temporary employment effectively, successfully navigate the job search process, and much more. Read these Guides to catch up on what is most effective now:

• Guide to Getting Started with Your Job Search
  This Guide provides the foundation for moving ahead with your job search, helping you understand all of the different aspects of it, including the process and the tools you can use to succeed.
• Guide to Successful Job Interviews
  While an effective resume gets you a job interview, the job interview is the make-or-break event that may land you the job. Or not. This Guide helps you answer the common job interview questions and also helps you understand the process from beginning to end.
  • Smart Answers to Interview Questions
    Recruiter advice on how to answer the most commonly asked questions in your next job interview. This Guide covers the top questions as well as offering sample answers to help you develop your own responses.
  • Smart Strategies for Behavioral Interview Questions
    These are the questions recruiters ask that begin with “Tell me about a time when…” or “Give me an example of…” They are challenging to answer without a strategy, shared here with sample answers.
  • Guide to Writing Thank You Notes After a Job Interview, including Samples
    If you are not sure what format to use (email, hand-written, or typed) or how to write an effective thank you after your job interview, this Guide provides advice plus thank you note (and email) samples for you to adapt to your own situation.
  • Free ebook about job interviews:
    • Successful Job Interviewing
      Written by a recruiter, this ebook helps you effectively prepare for your job interviews.
• Guide to Effective Resumes
  Resumes are one of the traditional tools used in a job search, and they are still very important to your success. This Guide provides both articles which explain how to create a successful resume as well as sample resumes so you can see how different special situations are successfully managed.
  • Sample Resumes –
    Both formal and ATS versions of the resumes for 12 typical situations in job search today, including:
    • Older laid off
    • Just fired
    • Making a career change
    • Mom returning to work
    • New grad
    • More…
• Guide to Informational Interviews
  Informational interviews are an excellent way to collect information before you start to make a change in your career, and they are also an excellent way to expand your professional network.
• Guide to Job Search Networking
  Networking is the key to success in a job search! Job seekers who don’t understand networking have a serious handicap in their job search. This Guide offers you a foundation understanding of effective networking as well as many networking tips and tricks to use for a successful job search.
• Guide to Freelancing and Contracting
  Freelancing or contract jobs can be a temporary gap filler that provides a good income for a set period of time. For an increasingly large number of workers, freelancing is a new career. It typically pays better than a “real job” and cuts you loose from getting too caught up in the internal politics of a typical organization. But, the hazards are ending at a specific point, finding the next “gig,” and managing your own tax payments.
• Guide to Temporary Employment
  Often temporary employment is a necessity. It can also be a great way to check out an employer while you “audition” for a permanent job. And, for many, it is a convenient way to earn an income without an endless commitment to a single employer. This Guide helps you be a successful temporary worker.
• Guide to Job Search Navigation
  A job search (and a career) require navigation to be successful. In this Guide, learn how to navigate your way to a new job.
• Understanding Employers —Understanding what’s happening on the “other side” of the hiring process is key to being successful in your job search.
  • Guide to Working with Recruiters
    Recruiters are key players in any job search because they are usually the people who manage the process. Working well with them is not optional, and this ebook, written by a recruiter, will help you understand their perspective and work with them successfully.
  • Guide to Your Best Job Search Mindset
    Employers have a different view of the job search process than most job seekers do, naturally. This ebook offers you the employer’s perspective — of you and your actions.

Guide to Avoiding Online Job Search Hazards

Unfortunately, new technology has created some new hazards, like protecting your privacy, job hunting without getting fired, and managing your online reputation. Old hazards have morphed into new versions, particularly related to scam jobs, scam job boards, and employer identity theft. These Job-Hunt Guides will help you navigate some tricky waters around those topics:

• Guide to Protecting Your Privacy
  In an online job search, smart job seekers take precautions to protect their privacy. This Guide explains why and how to do that.
• Guide to Avoiding Job Scams
  Unfortunately, people in a job search are exposed to a number of scams, and without knowing what you might be facing and how many of the scams operate, you can be badly hurt by them. So, read this Guide to understand how to spot and avoid online scams in your job search.
• Guide to Personal Online Reputation Management
  Employers and recruiters use the Internet’s search capabilities to research potential job candidates. What they find can make the difference between being considered for a job and being ignored. So, today, online reputation management is really not optional. This Guide offers the why and how to protect your reputation online.
• Guide to a Stealthy Job Search
  Employers are not usually happy to discover that an employee is job hunting. Often, that employee loses their job immediately or has a very uncomfortable discussion with their boss. Unfortunately, today, it is easy for employers to discover that an employee is job hunting. This Guide offers help to avoid that situation.

Guides for Handling Career Change, Unemployment, and Job Loss

Job loss is tough, regardless of the cause. These Job-Hunt Guides provide you with help recovering from layoffs or being fired and landing a new job:

• Guide to Career Change
  A transition could be involuntary, precipitated by an external change like a layoff, or it may develop as you move on to a new phase in your life and your career. This Guide offers you help in understanding your many options, determining your next career, and transitioning to this new phase in your career.
  • Free ebook about career change:
    
    • Starting Your Career Reinvention
      For a successful career change, you need to understand yourself — what you want to do and what you like to do. This ebook provides a process that will help you figure out what should be next for your career.
    • Implementing Your Career Reinvention
      Once you know the direction you want your career to take, you can move in that direction. This ebook describes 5 steps to implement your career change.
• Guide to Beating Unemployment
  Finding a new job is usually an immediate need for someone who has lost their job or who is unemployed. This Guide offers detailed advice on how to manage the issue in resumes, LinkedIn Profiles, job interviews, and other steps in the process of finding a new job.
• Guide to Job Loss Recovery
  Losing your job can be a very big blow to both your confidence and your bank account. Successfully handling that blow can make the difference between a short and a longer job search. This Guide offers you help recovering from job loss.
• Guide to Layoff Recovery
  A layoff is a job loss that is not usually related to employee performance. Someone is laid off typically simply because they are in the wrong department or job at the wrong time (when the department or job are being reduced). This Guide helps you successfully recover.
  

   

  • Free ebook about layoffs:
    

     

    • Guide to Layoff Self-Defense
      Smart job seekers don’t assume that they will not be laid off, particularly if their employer has laid off other employees. This ebook helps you to lay the groundwork for surviving if you are laid off (or, maybe, for leaving before it can happen to you).

Guides for Specific Groups of Job Seekers

Many groups of job seekers face unique issues, based on their age, experience level, or personal preferences. This section of Job-Hunt.Org helps members of those groups, from boomers to veterans, introverts to new grads, .

Learn what your group needs to know to succeed by reading the appropriate Guide(s) for you.

• Guide to Job Search for New Graduates
  New graduates face the issues associated with any start up, and, of course, strategies exist for managing those issues. This Guide offers new grads solid advice for starting up their careers and successful job search.
  • Free ebook for New Grads:
    
    • Converting Your Internship to a Full-Time Job
      Often an internship can be a short-cut to a full-time job. This ebook helps you craft that transition. .
• Guide to Job Search for Veterans
  Veterans and active-duty members preparing for transition to the civilian job market have both advantages to leverage and disadvantages to overcome for a successful job search. If you are a veteran or in transition, this Guide provides you with guidance for dealing with the issues and making the advantages obvious to civilian employers.
• Guide to Job Search for Over 50 and Boomers
  Boomers face many issues in their job search, from the possible disadvantage of no longer being young (and inexpensive) to the advantages resulting from a strong network built up over their lives. This Guide helps Boomer job seekers manage the “age issue” and reconnect with their networks, both resulting in successful job searches more quickly.
• Guide to Job Search for Working Moms
  Working mothers face unique issues — from explaining “the gap” when they job search after staying home with their children for a while to balancing priorities and juggling schedules while interviewing. This Guide helps working moms navigate to job search success with advice from a genuine working mom.
• Guide to Attorney Job Search
  Attorneys and lawyers have very specific and unique requirements and processes in their search for a new job. From resumes to social media, they face requirements that few other job seekers and job candidates face. In this Guide, an attorney who has also hired attorneys explains the process.

Guides for Specific Industries and Locations

Industries can differ dramatically in the process for successfully landing a job. In these Guides you will find help in understanding the requirements, processes, and unique characteristics of a specific industry. From the US Federal Government to information technology (IT) to attorneys and more, these Guides will increase your understanding of specific fields. That understanding will help you be more successful:

• Guide to Startup Jobs
  There’s one category of jobs which is misunderstood more than any other. It’s working for startups. Startups are not well-understood, and many wrong assumptionsare made. This Guide helps you understand how startups work, and how working for one may be a great career move for you.
• Guide to Federal Government Job Search
  If you are trying to land a job with the U.S. Federal Government, you face a job search environment which is fairly unforgiving, but very structured and rules-based (at least officially). This Guide helps you understand how the process works and what you need to do to meet the requirements.
  • Free ebook for Federal Government Job Search:
    • Create an Effective Federal Resume with the USAJOBS.GOV Resume Builder
      A key part of being considered for a job is doing a good, clean job of making your resume visible in the USAJOBS.GOV resume database. This ebook helps you accomplish that goal.
• Guide to Information Technology (IT) Job Search
  The field of information technology continues to grow in importance as IT becomes increasingly embedded in our lives. This Guide helps you navigate your way to a job in this industry.

Job-Hunt’s Free eBooks

For several years, Job-Hunt has provided free ebooks to help you be more successful in your job search. This is the complete list:

• All of the free Job-Hunt ebooks on one page – the Job Search Guides.
• eBooks for Everyone:
  • New Year, New Job!
    101+ tips from Job-Hunt’s Experts in how you can successfully leverage the BEST time of the year to land a job.
  • Personal Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile
    LinkedIn is a very important tool for building your personal brand. Particularly if you are an executive, this ebook helps you leverage your personal brand using LinkedIn.
  • Guide to Layoff Self-Defense
    Smart job seekers don’t assume that they will not be laid off, particularly if their employer has laid off other employees. This Guide helps you to lay the groundwork for surviving if you are laid off.
  • Successful Job Interviewing
    Written by a recruiter, this ebook helps you effectively prepare for your job interviews.
  • Choosing Safe Job Boards
    Not every job board is useful. Some are scams and some are ineffective. This Guide explains how to evaluate job boards, separating the good ones from the useless and/or dangerous.
  • Using Craigslist for Job Search
    Craigslist can be a wonderful source of local jobs, no matter where you are in the world. The Guide offers tips on leveraging Craigslist for your job search as well as how to spot and avoid scams.
  • Personal Marketing Plan
    This ebook helps you to pull all of the pieces together to make progress in your job search.
• eBooks for Career Changers:
  
  • Starting Your Career Reinvention
    For a successful career change, you need to understand yourself — what you want to do and what you like to do. This ebook provides a process that will help you figure out what should be next for your career.
  • Implementing Your Career Reinvention
    Once you know the direction you want your career to take, you can move in that direction. This ebook describes 5 steps to implement your career change.
• eBook for Introverts:
  • Job Search Networking for Introverts
    Networking is probably the biggest challenge for introverts. This ebook provides help for introverts (and shy people) to address the issues associated with networking.
• eBooks for New Grads:
  • Converting Your Internship to a Full-Time Job
    Often an internship can be a short-cut to a full-time job. This ebook helps you make that transition happen.

For more information on the experts who write this information for you, visit the Job-Hunt Job Search Experts page.

Are you an expert in a job search-related field? Here’s how to join the Job-Hunt Job Search Experts.

---

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…