Going Back to Work - Los Angeles,CA

For starters I would just put the word out that I was looking to my friends, neighbors etc. You never know who may know somebody who may know somebody and you land a job!

Are you on LinkedIn? Create a free account if you don't have one. You can look for jobs and people can see your skills as well.

We own our company and I get resumes from people daily as well as get offers for interviews from other companies. I like the site a lot for networking and recruiters use it as well.

What type of work are you looking for? I wish you the best !

ETA: Mama H has a very good point. When I was in corporate marketing for a major snack food company, we hired everyone from the temp pool. They still follow this policy... no one from the outside is hired in for any admin positions. You get a good idea if you like the company and if you are a fit. It works great for both employee and company.

Not sure what your industry is. Monster is still available, but mind you, the numbers on that thing make it really difficult. My husband worked in hiring/ intake for a while, he would daily get inundated with hundreds of resumes and couldn't even get to calling all those who were qualified on paper.

monster is still an avenue, but not necessarily the best one. temp agencies, word of mouth, industry events, cold calling, volunteer work might be a better foot in the door.

Best,
F. B.

Sign up with multiple temp agencies to get your foot in the door.

I work in HR and while we still use Monster somewhat we have found that the responses are not great. Career Builder is just way too expensive for a lot of employers. We use craigslist a lot because it is so cheap to post on, but we also like Simply hired, indeed.com, etc. You can google job boards and job searches and get all kinds of things.

DO NOT give your personal information SS# and DOB out on the internet. No employer is going to ask for that in the application process as it is against the law.

I'm in a similar boat. I was told to contact temp agencies, and to freshen up my Linkedin profile.

I have been out of work for 11 months. I have to say my experience with Monster and Career Builder has been horrible. I waste so much time on it since anyone and everyone can post. There are a lot of junk listings. I have found legit positions on LinkedIn and networking is really a good way to find a job. Unfortunately for me, some jobs I have gotten referrals for end up being cancelled. Indeed can be great but I have found some jobs have already closed to applications when I see it so it is not always up to date. You can also check with your Dept of Employment Sec to see if they have any type of job finder database or maybe even skills training for those reentering the workforce.

Indeed is your best online source. Just be sure that you go WAY back - seriously 30 pages. Everything from everywhere that gets posted ends up there so it's one stop shopping. Once you go way back, you can then start going not so far back since you've already seen all there is to see.

Post your resume on Indeed and CareerBuilder.

Register at temp agencies.

Use LinkedIn.

Tell everyone that you know that you are looking. Referrals are and always will be the best way to get a job!

Good luck!

I signed up with staffing agencies and let them do the work. Of my last 4 jobs, 3 of them were found through staffing agencies, and those 3 lasted 2 - 5 years, and I'm hoping this one will last for longer. :)

I looked for ones in my field and applied on their websites. Within a day or so I had them calling me in to interview and then they were sending me out for interviews with companies. It really does make it easier. I told them I wanted either direct hire or temporary to permanent, I wasn't interested in only temporary work. I'm not sure what your field is, but I'm in accounting so I signed up with firms that had accounting as their main focus.

My sister's husband is on linked in, and has gotten a few offers without even trying, he's not currently searching for a new job.

I use online resources. Monster, Career Builder etc. One thing to note though is when you apply for a job online you will start to get emails from many-many other job offer sites, some days I will get between 30 - 50 emails. You may also start to get tele-marketing calls from schools trying to get you to go back to school.

There are several companies who use a third party website for their online applications. These sites require you to enter your Social Security Number and Date of Birth including year. They tell you it's for the background check, but they do not need this info unless they extend an offer. I stop the application at that point. You can't just enter 0's or leave it blank, you get a prompt to fill in the data. And the page won't move until you fill it in.

Most companies will not accept a cold call job inquiry, even if you are simply dropping off a resume. They will only accept an online form with resume.