Chapter 1 — Part I

Job hunt tools for your successful job search

Despite the “me–first” attitude that seems to define our nation these days, you still care enough to be part of the relatively small portion of the populace that works in education and the non–profit sector. As the 1990s end, quality educators are a hot commodity once again — as well they should be! No nation can prosper without superior teachers preparing its children for adulthood. And there seems to be a growing interest in “doing good,” to actually contribute to bettering society. Interest in careers in the non–profit sector has rarely been higher than it is today, even among upper echelon management in the business world.

In the not–so–distant past many a person interested in working for non–profits has been discouraged by how hard it is to find job vacancies with non–profit organizations. While only about 20 percent of all jobs are ever advertised in local newspapers, the proportion of non–profit jobs advertised there has been even lower. You pretty much had to rely on word–of–mouth to find job openings in the non–profit sector…until now!

That’s all changing today. As you’ll quickly discover reading this book, there’s been an explosion of resources for finding job openings in education and the rest of the non–profit sector, much of it online on the Internet, but most of it “offline” where everybody can access the job vacancies. The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder shows you exactly where to look for the jobs that aren’t advertised in the local classifieds so you can turn your job quest into a successful journey with the proverbial happy ending: the education or non–profit job you want, in the place you wish to live.

Do you plan to network your way to a new job? Do you intend to strategically pick a few non–profit organizations for which you want to work and steadfastly pursue them until one hires you? Use the print and online Internet directories described in this book to identify individuals in your profession with whom you should network and ascertain how to contact them. Discover how to reach hiring executives by email  who would ordinarily decline to accept a stranger’s phone call. Use other directories in this book to learn a great deal about the non–profit agencies and schools that hire people in your discipline and decide which ones you want to approach for a job even before a job vacancy is made public.

Want to find ads for job openings? Use the specialty and trade newsletters and magazines detailed in this book to find thousands of vacancies. Follow the instructions in Chapter 2 and use some of the online Internet job databases presented throughout this book to find job vacancies in your profession and for the state in which you’d like to work.

Prefer to find jobs from the comfort of your easy chair? Just call some of the job hotlines referenced in this book where you’ll find an abundance of job vacancies just a phone call away.

Want to have somebody else do the work for you and match you to job vacancies? Want to have lists of new job vacancies regularly pop up in your electronic mailbox? Sign up for some of the job–matching services and online mailing lists recommended in the chapters that follow.

All the practical tools you need to conduct every type of job search are now in your hands. This book gives you enough information about each job–quest resource so you can decide which ones you want to use without having to spend time and money making long distance phone calls or writing for additional information. After you read this chapter and Chapter 2 to get a thorough overview of how to use this book and its many resources, it’s up to you to decide which job–search strategies you’ll utilize and which of the myriad job resources in this book you’ll use. Employ all the techniques that work best for your occupation.

In his career classic What Color is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles strongly warns readers not to rely on just one strategy to find jobs. He snatched the words right out of my mouth. The most successful job seekers are those who are astute enough to employ three or four different strategies to find employment. This savvy job hunt should be the foundation of every job seeker’s efforts. The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder delivers to you all the resources you need to conduct all the job–search strategies you choose to use.

Tools for your savvy job quest

No single job–search strategy is so much better than all the others that you should use it exclusively. The remainder of this chapter examines the major job–hunt strategies and explains how to use the 2,222 job–quest tools presented in the Non–Profits and Education Job Finder to find job openings and get hired. I cannot stress enough that the smart job seeker uses three or four of these strategies to greatly enhance the chances of landing the job you want where you want to live.

 Tools for finding job vacancies  

Many years ago the local newspaper was the place to look for job openings. Experts now estimate that only seven to 20 percent of job vacancies make it into the local newspaper. During the 1990s non–profit employers and schools began to realize that their ads in the local classifieds were generating far too many responses from unqualified applicants. Since somebody on the payroll had to spend time looking at all these applications, employers sought venues to advertise their vacancies that would attract a more qualified body of applicants. The result has been a blossoming world of sources for job ads both in print and in cyberspace on the Internet.

Specialty and trade periodicals offer employers a more focused audience, often members of a professional association who are much more likely to be qualified for a job than many of the people who respond to an ad in the local classifieds. Employers also found that job listing periodicals offered an even more focused, bigger–bang–for–their–advertising buck. In more recent years, the Internet has become a source of job vacancies with job databases, newsgroups, mailing lists, and home pages of non–profit agencies and educational institutions that sometimes include listings of job vacancies. Chapter 2 offers a detailed explanation of how these online Internet–based sources of job ads work and how they are presented in this book.

From the job seeker’s perspective, print publications still have a big advantage over online services. As explained in Chapter 2, there is no way to know where the job ads offered on an Internet site or bulletin board service come from. Many of these services lift job ads from other sources which means that many of the ads are for jobs that have already been filled. Periodicals, however, charge employers to advertise their positions. You can be pretty confident that a non–profit employer or school will not spend money to advertise a position that is filled.

Specialty and trade periodicals. Many specialty and trade periodicals include a good number of job ads for the profession the publication serves. Chapter 3 introduces you to specialty and trade periodicals that feature ads for jobs in all aspects of the non–profit sector, including education. Chapters 4 through 29 each cover a broad occupational area. Chapter 30 reports on periodicals for each individual state that have job ads for all types of education and non–profit positions in that state. You should also consult the Index to locate the job sources that are listed in places you would not intuitively expect them to be found.

The vast majority of specialty and trade magazines are available to the general public. If a professional association is the publisher, members usually receive the periodical as part of the dues package or at a substantial discount. Some are available only to organization members. As will be noted several times in this book, you’d be wise to join your professional organization even if its job resources are available to the general public as well as members. Most people who make hiring decisions believe that membership in a professional association reflects a greater commitment and dedication to one’s profession — which can only enhance your prospects for getting hired.

Job listing periodicals. One of the best sources of jobs for an occupation is the periodical devoted entirely to job ads or announcements. The number of job ads in a typical issue ranges from about a dozen to several hundred. As with specialty periodicals, a job listing periodical may be available only to members of the organization that publishes it. Most, however, are available to nonmembers as well, although members often receive the job magazine as part of their membership package or for a reduced subscription fee.

Since so many professional organizations publish job ads in their periodicals, Chapter 3 also tells you about several directories of associations so you can track down any associations that escaped our attention.

State chapters of professional associations. Many of the associations that publish periodicals with ads for non–profit positions have state or regional chapters that also announce job openings in their chapter newsletters. Some also operate job services. Unfortunately, few of these national federations could tell us which of their chapters publish job ads or operate any job services. You will have to contact an organization’s national office to obtain the current addresses and phone numbers to reach the chapter president or chapter newsletter editor who can tell you if their newsletter features job openings. Throughout this book, the address and phone number given for a publication or job service an association operates is almost always that of the association’s headquarters. In some instances the address or phone number will be strictly for subscriptions. In those instances, ask for the organization’s direct number.

As noted earlier, you would be very wise to join the national professional association for your occupation. Not only will this give you access to the association’s job services and periodicals which may be available only to association members, but simply belonging to the association demonstrates a tangible commitment to your profession that most employers like to see. In addition, most professional associations include in their membership package publications at no extra cost that offer a great way to continue your professional education. And don’t forget, professional associations are often great places at which to work — they are non–profits.

Positions wanted. In addition to listing jobs which are available, many of the periodicals included in this book let job seekers advertise themselves under a category like “Positions Wanted.” We’ll tell you which ones offer this option. Before placing a “Positions Sought” ad, you’d be smart to first examine the periodical. Try to get a sample copy or inspect one in a library. After you’ve identified the periodicals in which you want to advertise yourself, contact them directly to learn if they place any restrictions that limit such self–advertising to members only, how much it costs to advertise yourself, and whether you can publish a “blind” ad without your name in it. In a blind ad, a box number at the publication is given for responses. The periodical regularly mails the responses to you. This way you can remain anonymous and avoid tipping off your current employer that you are in the job market. You can find many of these periodicals at your local public library or a university library. The libraries of professional associations are also likely to carry relevant periodicals. It’s usually worth it to subscribe to a periodical rather than rely on seeing it at your library because subscribers invariably receive their periodicals at least a few days to weeks before they are available at any library.

Internships. Throughout the chapters that follow, you’ll come upon some directories of internships as well as some periodicals and job services that carry internship announcements. These directories function more like the periodicals described above since they provide job descriptions for the internships they list. Be sure to consult the Index under “Internships” to find job sources scattered throughout this book you can use to find internship opportunities.

Local newspapers. Even with all these new job sources, do not ignore the local classifieds. The classifieds are still the primary place to advertise jobs that do not require an advanced education, like blue collar and clerical positions, or that are very localized in nature. In some locales the Sunday edition of the local newspaper may be the most accessible source for job openings, even for positions that require advanced training and education. In some states, a major newspaper is the best source for job ads for locations throughout the state, and in areas like New England, throughout the region. The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder identifies these newspapers in Chapter 30. If you wish to see classifieds from newspapers in other parts of the country, Chapter 3 includes a periodical and online computer services that compile want ads from many newspapers throughout the country.

About half the nation’s daily newspapers have placed their classified sections on the Internet thus giving you immediate access to them even when you are thousands of miles away. Chapter 2 gives you a number of key sites on the Internet that will get you to these online job classifieds.

What descriptions of periodicals with job ads include. The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder tells you everything you need to know about each periodical or online classifieds section so you can make an informed decision whether or not to subscribe without having to call or write the publisher for more information. Sources of job ads are listed under the heading “Job ads.”

Each entry includes information on subscription rates for members and nonmembers, frequency of publication, where the job ads appear in the periodical, how many jobs are advertised in a typical issue, and the publisher’s phone number and address for ordering a subscription or sample issue, if available.

There’s a lot of confusion about what bimonthly and semimonthly mean. The prefix “bi” means every other and “semi” means twice within the time period. So when a periodical comes out “bimonthly,” you receive an issue every other month. A “semimonthly” publication will be delivered to you twice a month. “Biennial,” for example, means every two years.

Job databases. There’s been a wild growth in online job databases and job banks which anybody can access with a computer and modem. Most job databases are located on the Internet for which you’ll also need special software to access. Other job banks are located on bulletin board services (BBSs) which do not require special software. See Chapter 2 for details on all the elements of the online job search.

Some universities and colleges participate in online job databases for use strictly by their graduates. Since you can simply ask your school’s placement office for details on any such services in which it participates, there is no need to include them in the Non–Profits and Education Job Finder.

What descriptions of job databases include. In this book, Internet sites and BBSs that feature only a job database are listed under “Job ads.” Each entry for a job database includes its name and Internet address, the “URL” that is explained in Chapter 2; the typical number of job openings listed; the identity of the operator, when available; how to contact the operator by phone or regular mail, if available; costs, if any; any membership requirements; any registration requirements; and, in the case of a bulletin board service, how to set your modem and the phone number to dial to connect to the BBS.

Job hotlines. Many professional and trade associations that serve the non–profit sector operate job hotlines which usually offer a prerecorded announcement of job openings. These hotlines have become much more sophisticated thanks to the wonders of the “automated attendant” device. You will almost certainly need a touch–tone phone to call them because the recorded voice at the other end will give you instructions that can be implemented only with a touch–tone phone. The most sophisticated job hotlines allow you to specify the geographic area(s) in which you are interested and the types of jobs about which you want to hear.

Some of the low–tech hotlines simply give you a recording that lists jobs. You have no control over what you hear. Often you will first hear a list of all the job titles available. If you want to hear a detailed description and how to apply for a particular position that was just listed, keep listening because that information is often conveyed next.

Pay attention to the area code of the job hotline you are about to call. If the area code is 900, the call not only isn’t free, but you will be charged an additional fee directly on your phone bill. When a 900 number is given, the charges are usually specified.

The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder tells you about job hotlines that cover different types of territory. You’ll find a number of job hotlines that include jobs for all occupations throughout the country. Other hotlines consist of jobs for a specific occupation. Still others are for specific schools or non–profits. Listing all of the job hotlines that exist could fill a book of its own. Fortunately, Chapter 3 will tell you all about two such books.

What descriptions of job hotlines include. In the Non–Profits and Education Job Finder job hotlines appear under the heading “Job services.” If a job hotline is free, the Non–Profits and Education Job Finder gives you the phone number to call. If there is a telephone device for the deaf phone number, that number is also given with the acronym TDD in boldface type. The entry for most job hotlines also includes the names of the job hotline and of the entity that operates it; the operator’s address and regular phone number, if available; operating hours and days; how many job vacancies are typically offered; how often job listings are changed; and whether or not membership in an organization is required to use the job hotline. If association membership or a prepaid fee is required to use the job hotline, the actual hotline number is not given here. You’ll get the hotline number after you join the organization or pay your fee. The job hotlines will tell you how to apply for the vacant positions they list. Be sure to visit our home page on the Internet at URL: http://jobfindersonline.com (if you're reading this you are obviously here already) to learn about any new directories of job hotlines for positions with specific non–profits and educational institutions. Select the Updates ’97 button.

User newsgroups. These online sites include listings of job vacancies and allow users to reach one another via electronic mail (email) which also makes them quite useful for networking. Chapter 2 explains how to use newsgroups in your job quest.

Mailing lists. These online services will send you lists of job openings when you subscribe to them. Subscriptions are nearly always free. Job openings are sent by email. Chapter 2 presents a detailed discussion of using mailing lists in your job search.

School and agency job pages on the Internet. A growing number of non–profit organizations and schools ranging from elementary through graduate institutions maintain home pages on the Internet where they announce job openings. See Chapter 2 to learn how the Internet works. Chapter 2 also gives you information about a number of prime Internet sites that connect you to these job pages on the Internet. Other online sites that include directories of home pages for non–profits and educational institutions are noted throughout this book.

Continue with Part II of this chapter.

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