| Looking for a new or better job? If so, take a look at how RSS feeds can help your job search. A RSS job feed can compliment your other job hunting methods by regularly bringing you targeted employment listings. (Includes screencast showing how to create a RSS feed with Indeed.com) My guess is few of us consider job hunting fun. The mere task of looking makes some people break out in hives. Others are in perpetual job search as they believe the grass is greener someplace else. The good news is once you find a good job web site that caters to your preferences, you can leverage the search results using RSS. Benefits of using RSS job feeds I'm not suggesting that these feeds replace professionals, but the feeds offer some distinct advantages. - The feeds pick up new job listings that meet your criteria.
- The feeds work in a variety of feed readers.
- You can read the feed when it suits you.
- You don't have to give anyone your email address.
- You can unsubscribe.
- They're free.
Finding job sites that offer RSS feeds There are a number of good job sites available. Some have unique content and others pull job listings from many sources. The best one varies by your industry and location. For example, if you're in the IT industry you might consider a specialized site like Dice.com. That site wouldn't work for you if you're looking for a nursing job. A trickier issue is finding out if the job site offers your search results in a RSS feed. Few sites tell you that RSS is an option. Often, you need to perform a job search from various criteria before the RSS clues appear. In the thumbnail picture below, you can see one of the areas where Indeed.com displays a RSS feed link above the search results.  Click to enlarge A few sites such as Craigslist.com uses auto discovery and allow the browser to provide RSS clues based on which browser you use. If you use Firefox 2.0 or later you can see the RSS feed icon on the address bar. With IE 7, the RSS toolbar button becomes enabled.  CLick to enlarge Although many job listing sites offer feeds, they differ in implementation and information. The table below outlines 8 popular job sites with RSS feeds. | Site | RSS Feed Info | Link Location | | CareerBuilder.com | Displays job title and 2 line description | Click button "Get jobs via RSS". (Note: I did not find RSS options on the main search page.) | | CollegeRecruiter.com | Displays job title, location and 2 line description | Need to use separate query builder. Then look for text that says "Your Custom Link is Below" | | Craigslist.com | Full feed with entire job listing. | Result page has RSS auto discovery. You can also scroll to the bottom and look for RSS button. | | Hotjobs.com | Displays job title, location and 1 line description | On the results page, look for XML button on left side towards the bottom | | Indeed.com | Displays job title, location, 1 line description and job listing source. | On the results page, there is a text link for RSS feed. You may also scroll down to the bottom of the right column and look for the RSS button and job feed link. | | JobCentral.com | Displays job title and location | Above the results, look for text link [Save as RSS feed] to the right | | Monster.com | Displays job title, location and 2 line description | On the results page, scroll down and to the left there is a XML graphic and text link "Save as RSS feed" | | Net-Temps.com | Displays job title, location, category, duration, posting date. | On the results page, look for the XML button to the top left. | Creating your job search query The job search process starts by building a query using a form. My preference was to use an advanced search feature if offered. The advanced options allowed me to better target a job by more criteria. In the thumbnail below from Yahoo! hotjobs, I could filter by keywords, category, location, salary and experience level.  Click to enlarge The search query page may also be tailored to the type of job search. In the case of Net-Temps, the user can also specify if they wish to look at temporary or full-time jobs.  Click to enlarge Some sites had separate pages for RSS where they allowed you to build your feed. These sites may also offer pre-built RSS job feeds by industry such as telecommunications or transportation. The thumbnail below shows the query tool and some prebuilt job feeds from Careerbuilder.com. These pre-built feeds can be useful if location isn't a primary factor.  Click to enlarge The area that I felt was weak among most sites was location search. Too often, I would enter my zip code and radius only to see results which were well outside the area. One exception was Craigslist where the location search by town did not have overflow from neighboring areas. In fairness, I see this problem on non-employment websites that have location search. Some web sites haven't fully grasped the concept of land travel versus water travel. (Yes, I live on a bay.)  Click to enlarge Reviewing and revising your RSS feeds When you start your job search, I would use several websites. One benefit of setting up similar job feeds with different sites is you can do comparative analysis. You can see differences in the number of jobs, post frequency and the job description details for each vendor. You may find that one feed is very good about updating, but doesn't provide as much detail. In some cases, you may decide to use multiple feeds as one service may have unique job listings. If you don't have a RSS reader, there are plenty of free ones. One question you might consider is where you will be when you review the feed results. For example, if the only computer you have access to is at work, you might consider a web based solution. You probably don't want to install a stand alone program at work unless you're in the HR department and you're doing competitive intelligence. For those people who prefer web based RSS readers, I think Google Reader is a good choice. It works with all browsers and if you use Firefox you can set it as your default reader using Tools | Options and clicking the Feeds icon. You can also see our article on setting up RSS feeds in IE 7. Another excellent RSS product line belongs to NewsGator. They have a suite of products that cover just about every need. These are also the same folks that make the free software program FeedDemon. To give you an idea of how useful these feeds can be, I did tutorial using Indeed.com for some friends last year which is in tutorials section below. While the job openings have changed since then, the site structure and set up are the same. RSS job feeds won't get you that perfect job as you still need to ace the interview. But, with a little bit of effort, they can help you find and organize relevant job listings which can put you ahead of your competition.
Related Tutorials Screencast showing how to create a RSS feed from an Indeed.com job search
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