Dear Cindy – Job Searching In The Modern (Internet) World

I'm in the market for a new job, but the last time I looked for a job, there was no such thing as the internet. What's different now?

Sincerely,

Fossil?

The main changes are in the method of job searching.

Before advertising jobs on the internet became popular, the breadth of a search was usually limited. The average person could consult their local paper and professional journals, and use word-of-mouth. Also, for the more adventurous, there were the options of cold-calling or obtaining newspapers from other localities. Now it's easy to visit websites listing jobs available throughout your community, your state/province, your country, and the world.

Before, applying for a job took longer: visually scanning long and occasionally vague ads, typing a résumé, and then mailing it (or in the lingo of the internet, snail-mailing it) – then waiting for it to arrive and be assessed. Now, you can do targeted searches – such as by job title and location – and email a résumé almost anywhere with the click of a button. You can also send out a larger number of résumés in very little time. (Of course, just because you can send out great volumes of résumés, doesn't mean you should (see Make Your Online Job Search Work for You).

Finally, since résumés can be emailed, there are several computer-related issues that you should be aware of:

So as you can see, the major change is that job searching is much easier!