Category: Tech

Tutorials for library databases, job-search websites, and common software issues.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising, Part 5 – Financial Aid

This is the fifth post in a series delving into the various aspects of the Career Cruising database available through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library. Read all posts here.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising – Financial Aid

This post will be a more in-depth discussion of the financial aid feature.  The financial aid tab of Career Cruising is literally a treasure trove of information and money. It lists thousands of scholarships as well as information on federal financial aid.

There are three ways to search the database: alphabetically, by keyword search, and by using the financial aid selector.

The financial aid selector lets you choose specific parameters that apply to you, such as location, ancestry, major, interests, special needs, etc. It will search the database to find matching scholarships.  The results include links to the scholarship website with the respective application information.

You can also search by keyword. For example, the database returns five scholarships that have the keyword “Louisiana” in their name. Again, a link to the scholarship website is included in the results.

If you have time on your hands, try searching the database alphabetically and just browse the different scholarships. You will come across some off-the-beaten-path scholarships, such as the Fifth Month Scholarship or the Gulf Coast Hurricane Scholarship.

The financial aid tab also includes extensive information on how to apply for Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA), its regulations, and application guidelines.

The financial aid tab is an ideal add-on to the education section. The database’s most valuable feature is its exhaustive listing of available scholarships. Some of them seem so obscure that surely not many students will know about them, thus increasing the chances for the few that do find out about them. So, if you or your children are planning for college, be smart and use Career Cruising’s Financial Aid feature to search for additional college funding opportunities.

This resource is free to you with a valid EBRPL library card through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library.

Written by Anne Nowak

Note: This article was originally published in January 2018. It has been reposted here, with updates, in order to reach a new audience.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising, Part 4 – Education

This is the fourth post in a series delving into the various aspects of the Career Cruising database available through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library. Read all posts here.

In Career Cruising, the education tab lets you research your post-secondary education path from finding majors and the right school to how to best utilize your four years of high school in order to prepare for college. It contains comprehensive information about schools and provides links to their websites. It’s a perfect one-stop-shop for your college research.

The first feature under the education tab lets you explore colleges and majors. You can search colleges by state or by major.

For Louisiana, the list includes 114 schools, which includes every kind of post-secondary school from career colleges and beauty schools to universities offering graduate degrees.

If you already know what you want to major in and want to find out which schools offer your field, you can search by major. For example, if you want to major in kinesiology or exercise science and want to find a school in Louisiana, these are your choices.

If you want to expand your search to other states, you can easily adjust the search filters.

The next feature lets you compare up to three schools side by side. It compares almost every statistic available for educational institutions. You can compare size, cost, average financial aid packages, which majors are offered, which NCAA sports teams are fielded, and, of course, admissions requirements.

If you have a number of requirements for your college and wonder which schools satisfy all of them, use the School Selector tool. Here you can choose different parameters, such as: public or private school, city, suburban, small town or rural setting, school size, admission difficulty, tuition, athletics, majors offered, and campus services. You can combine any of these criteria and see what’s possible. If it exists, Career Cruising will tell you where.

Last but not least, Career Cruising offers a planning timeline for college admissions. In a detailed description, the database describes which steps toward college choice and admission you should take during which year of high school.

As it did for occupational information, Career Cruising contains an incredible amount of data and information about post-secondary education and institutions. It is an easy-to-use tool for exploration, either to browse “what’s out there” or to do a targeted college or major search. If you are in the market for a college education, Career Cruising should be your go-to site for research.

This resource is free to you with a valid EBRPL library card through its Digital Library.

Written by Anne Nowak

Note: This article was originally published in October 2017. It has been reposted here, with updates, in order to reach a new audience.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising, Part 3 – Careers

This is the third post in a series delving into various aspects of the Career Cruising database available through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library.  Read all posts here.

This post will be a more in-depth discussion of the careers feature.  The careers tab contains exhaustive information about a large number of occupations. The information is displayed in a very user-friendly way and serves as a great starting point for your career exploration.

You can search occupations in five different ways, either alphabetically, by school subject, career cluster, industry, or using the career selector. The most innovative tool is definitely the career selector. Here you can narrow down your career choice with several parameters: school subject, career cluster, type of education, core tasks, earnings, and working conditions.

My parameters were:

  • school subject – English
  • career cluster – business management and administration
  • type of education – 4-year degree; core tasks – Artistic Expression, Building or Creating Things, Organizing People and Planning Work Activities, Writing
  • earnings – 60,000 or more per year

And these are the matches the career selector found:

It’s fun to play with and see how the results change when you adjust the parameters.

Another interesting way to search is by school subject. Let’s see what the options are if our favorite subject is English and we don’t plan to go to college. There are twenty-seven results.

Each of the occupations is clickable and will lead to in-depth information about the respective occupation. Let’s choose court clerk:

For each occupation you will get two video interviews with people doing that particular job. There is information about typical salaries, the necessary education and qualifications, a sample career path, and links to the respective professional organizations. Another useful feature is the link to closely related careers. For court clerk, Career Cruising considers the following to be related careers.

This is a great tool for people in the career discovery stage as you get a lot of information about careers in a certain area of interest that you might not have thought about otherwise.

Last but not least, you can get great information about all the different military careers that are available in the different branches of the armed forces.

We chose to search by job family, but you can also look alphabetically or by service branch. If you click on a certain job family, it will display the different occupations within, tell you if they are officer or enlisted paths, give you a description of job content, and also show you closely related civilian careers.

Overall, this database can give you comprehensive occupational information presented in a very user-friendly and intuitive way. We highly recommend it as a starting point for anybody who is considering his or her career path regardless of age, education level, and career stage. This resource is free to you with a valid EBRPL library card through the Digital Library.

Written by Anne Nowak.

Note: This article was originally published in August 2017. It has been reposted here, with updates, in order to reach a new audience.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising, Part 2 – Assessments

This is the second post in a series delving into the various aspects of the Career Cruising database available through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library. Read all posts here.

The first step to any career decision is self-knowledge. You need to know what you want in order to pursue it. Assessments can be a useful first step to help you figure out what career you want to pursue. Career Cruising offers two assessments, the Matchmaker & My Skills and the Learning Styles Inventory.  Before you start your assessments, you will have to create a free account with Career Cruising.

The Matchmaker assesses your interest in certain common work activities. It is very intuitive. You will be presented a number of questions about common occupational tasks, and you choose the answer that applies most: dislike very much; dislike; does not matter; like; like very much.

Before you start you are also asked to indicate the level of education you aspire to or already have. The database will present you only with jobs that match your interests and the indicated education level.

After you finish answering the questions, Career Cruising will present you with a list of occupations that match your indicated interests.

At this point you could change the level of education to see what matching careers would be available with a different degree of education.

You can stop here and explore the indicated careers further by clicking on the link to get to in-depth information about each respective career. Or you can continue the assessment, which now changes scope and asks about the skills most commonly associated with your matching careers. You again answer the questions on a five point scale: highly skilled; skilled; have some skill; don’t have this skill; can’t answer this.

The results of the skills assessment will be incorporated with the results of the interest assessment and shows if you have the skills most commonly associated with those careers. Now, it is important to note that this skills assessment depends on your self-reported answers. Therefore it is not an objective overview of your skills.

Now you can see if you already have the major skills needed for the careers you are interested in. This serves as great input for further research.

The second assessment, the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) will show you how you best process information. There are three types of learning or ways of processing information: visual (looking at information, graphs, images, etc); auditory (listening to information); and tactile (hands-on learning). Most people prefer one way of learning over the others. This information can be especially useful for students who are still contemplating their further education and career path.

Both assessments are a good start for your career exploration. They are intuitive and quick to take and will lead you to more information about matching careers.

The Career Cruising database can be accessed through the EBRPL Digital Library.

Written by Anne Nowak.

Note: This article was originally published in June 2017. It has been re-posted here with updates in order to reach a new audience.

Tech Talk: Career Cruising, Part 1

This is the first post in a series delving into the various aspects of the Career Cruising database available through the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Digital Library. Read all posts here.

Career Cruising is a database that’s a very user-friendly one-stop-shop for all things related to college, career, and job search information. All you need is an East Baton Rouge Parish Library card and a computer with internet connection. Want to find out which university in your area offers a criminal justice major? Career Cruising can do that for you. Want to find careers that don’t need a 4-year degree but pay more than $60,000 a year? Career Cruising can do that (it identifies 20 occupations for these criteria, among them commercial driver, energy auditor, landman, and mortgage broker). Want to know exactly what an actuary does and what it takes to become one? Yes, Career Cruising has that information too. Need to find scholarships to pay for college? Again, check Career Cruising.

You can access the database through the EBRPL Digital Library, which will take you to the Career Cruising home page.

Career Cruising presents ample information divided into five tabs: Assessments, Careers, Education, Financial Aid, and Employment.

You can browse all information without creating an account (except for the assessments and the resume builder — for those you will need an account). While you can use most functions without an account, the database will not save any of your activities and you will have to start over the next time you access Career Cruising. It’s better to create a “My Plan” account with Career Cruising to save your assessments, education plans, and searches. This way you can come back, view your earlier activity, and continue where you left off at any time.

Now you are ready to plan your college or career journey. Not sure about your skills and interests? Start with an assessment. You can take the “Matchmaker & My Skills,” which assesses your interests and matches them with occupations, or the “Learning Styles Inventory,” which measures how you learn best and retain information most efficiently — valuable information for planning your further education.

You can either use your assessment results to research matching careers or skip assessments and jump into the careers tab right away. The careers section is such a treasure trove of easily accessible information that we will explore it in more depth in a future post. For now, here is an overview of the kind of information you can search for.

You can search for occupations alphabetically or by school subject, which will present you with careers related to your favorite school subject. You can also look at occupations by career cluster and by industries, and there is a separate section with explanations of military careers. Additionally, the Career Selector is a tool that lets you choose specific criteria, such as salary, core tasks, and education level, and matches those to occupations that fit your criteria.

The education section is also a one-stop-shop. You can search for universities by region or by major. You can conduct side-by-side comparisons of schools in terms of majors, size, cost, etc. And the database can give you a planning timeline by major, which will tell you which classes you should take in high school to best prepare you for your chosen major.

Now that you’ve chosen a college, you are ready to find scholarships. Use the Financial Aid tab to search among thousands of scholarship opportunities. You can use the alphabetical index to search according to scholarship name. Or you can use the Financial Aid Selector and search according to your specified criteria. For either search method, the result will give you a full scholarship profile and a link to the respective website. The site also features information about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Last but not least, Career Cruising can help with your job search. Under the Employment tab you will find links to information about job search skills such as cover letter writing, interview preparation, resume writing, etc.  There is a job search feature that links you to www.indeed.com, a job postings aggregator that helps you find open positions in your field and location. To help you write a winning resume, Career Cruising also features a “Build My Resume” tool.

There is such a wealth of information in this database that this article can only scratch the surface.  Career Cruising is intuitive and user-friendly, so you will do fine just logging on and browsing the site. However, we will follow up with future posts elaborating on each section of this database.

Written by Anne Nowak.

Note: This article was originally posted in April 2017, and has been re-posted with updates to reach a new audience.

Tech Talk: Treehouse

Coding has become the universal language of our times. Digital technology’s role in shaping the ways we live and work will only expand, in breadth and depth, and coding will continue to be a highly marketable and valued skill.

Whether you’re interested in building your skills for a career in the tech industry or just want to create your own website, there are many online resources for learning on your own time and at your own pace. One such resource is Treehouse, and East Baton Rouge Parish Library patrons may request a free Treehouse account on the library’s website.

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Treehouse offers many different courses as well as tracks. A track is a program of courses designed for a particular topic. For example, the “Web Design” track includes a total of seventeen courses, starting with “How to Make a Website” and ending with “CSS to Sass.”

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Once you have created an account and chosen a course or track, Treehouse will create a daily lesson plan for you, which can be viewed in your dashboard. Each lesson plan usually includes two to three steps and takes approximately thirty minutes to complete.

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Courses are taught using video tutorials and follow along exercises in custom Treehouse workspaces that allow you to create and test code as you write it. There are also quizzes to evaluate your retention of information.

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For an idea of what Treehouse video tutorials are like, check out this introduction to the course “Intro to HTML and CSS.”

Ready to start? East Baton Rouge Parish Library patrons can request a free account. Don’t have a library card? EBR Parish residents can visit the nearest branch to create a library account and get access to Treehouse and many other free resources!

Written by Thien-Kieu Lam.

Note: This article was originally published in December 2016, and has been re-posted with updates to reach a new audience.

3 Tech Hacks for the Job Search

Technology can definitely make the job search more complicated. . .but occasionally, technology is there to bail you out as well. Here are 3 tech-based quick fixes we recently discovered that we think you’ll find useful in your job search:

Situation 1: You need to update your PDF resume

We sometimes see patrons who need to update or revise their resume but it is in PDF format. Many computers (including library computers) do not have the software necessary to edit PDF files. What can you do?

Sometimes that resume was originally in another format such as Microsoft Word and was exported as a PDF file. If you can track down the original file and open that in Microsoft Word and update or revise it with no problem. However, if all you have is the PDF, try this:

Solutions:

  • Convert it using Word. Newer editions of MS Word (2013 and beyond) are able to open a PDF and convert it to Word format. This is the most effective and hassle-free option. Here is a step-by-step guide from Microsoft. However it will not work with a scan. This works best with files that were created in Word and exported as PDFs. If the resume was originally created as a PDF, some of the formatting (such as font size and style) will be lost, but you can restore or modify that in Word.
  • Use ILovePDF.com. This website converts PDFs to Word documents and produced excellent results when we tested it. It even does a great job converting fancy resumes formatted with tables. However it will not work with a scan.
  • Use Google Drive to convert it. Obviously this one only works if you have a Google account. Upload the PDF to your Drive and open the file as a Google Doc. Then, in the menu bar, go to File -> Download as -> Microsoft Word (docx). Again this technique does not work with scans.
  • If your resume is a scan, none of the above options will work very well. If that is the case, we have another blog post that explains what you can do.

Situation 2: Your employer sent you a packet of forms to fill out, but they are in PDF format

In the last few months we have worked with several patrons who found a new job, and their (new) employer needed them to complete several forms that are in PDF format. Some PDF forms are designed to be filled out electronically but this is uncommon. As in (1) above most computers (including library computers) do not have the software to edit PDF files and so completing these forms is inconvenient. Usually people must (a) print the forms, (b) fill them out by hand, (c) scan them, and (d) email them back to the employer. There is however a simpler way:

Solution:

You can type in PDF files electronically using the website Kami at www.kamiapp.com. To use Kami you need an account but a basic account is free. The way Kami works is, you do not fill in the PDF form electronically so much as you create text boxes and type over those spaces in the form where you need to add information. It is very much like using a typewriter to complete a form except you are using a website on a computer.

Situation 3: You want to make sure your resume uses key words that match the job description

An important part of putting together an effective resume is using keywords that line up with a job description. That potential employer is looking for someone who has certain specific skills, and they use something called Automated Tracking Software (ATS) to look for those skills and keywords in resumes they receive. The bad news is, if your resume doesn’t contain the right keywords, it could be rejected by the ATS before it gets seen by a person. The good news is, there are websites that scan your resume and let you know how well your resume lines up with a job description. Try these websites to help you beat the ATS:

solutions:

  • Skillsyncer at www.skillsyncer.com. You can try it for free and can use it for free once per week. You can also subscribe for a monthly or quarterly fee, and this allows you to use it as much as you like, and you receive more thorough feedback. Upload your resume, search the web for a job that interests you, paste the job listings description into the Skillsyncer platform. Your resume receives feedback within seconds. Your match report includes a Job Match Score, Keyword Analysis, and Common Resume Checks for you to review.
  • Jobscan at www.jobscan.co. It is more expensive than Skillsyncer although the feedback and recommendations you receive (include cover letter templates) are more extensive.

Written by Richard Wright

What You Should Know about Online Job Applications, Part II

More and more employers are moving their application process entirely online, so it’s important that you know the basics of filling out online applications. While every job application is a little different, there are a few things that are basically the same across most of them. In this thrilling conclusion to the blog series, we’ll discuss which documents to include with your online application, and the assessments you’ll have to take.

If you missed Part I, you can read it here.

1 Documents to include

Most online applications will allow you to upload supporting documents with your application. We recommend including at least a Resumé, though a Cover letter, and a list of References are also helpful, especially if the employer asks for them.

1.1 Resumé

A resumé is a short overview of your professional history and qualifications. Employers use resumés to quickly filter through candidates to narrow down the applicant pool. Since a resumé is so short, and so important, it should be your top priority. If you can only work on one of these documents, work on your resumé.

1.1.1 Structure

Your resumé needs three main sections: a header with your name and contact information, an education section, and an experience section. In addition, you might want to include other sections for job-relevant certifications, skills, extracurriculars, classes, or volunteer work. You can also check out our YouTube videos Creating a Winning Resumé or Creating Your First Resumé for more information.

1.1.2 Formatting

Your resume should be typeset in an easy-to-read font – think Times New Roman, Cousine, or Helvetica – at a standard size, like 10, 11, or 12 pt. The margins should be comfortable, around 1 inch from each side. While it is your resumé, so you can format it how you like, it’s also a representation of your personality, style, and qualifications. We suggest you make it easy to read.

Some resumé templates online or in resumé builders have colors, backgrounds, images, or fancy formatting. Our resumé templates don’t include any of those, but again, it’s your personal choice. Make sure the formatting fits the job you’re applying for, however – you wouldn’t want to apply to a bank with a four-color resumé in Comic Sans, for example.

1.1.3 Further reading

1.2 Cover letter

A cover letter is almost as important to include as a resumé. A cover letter is your opportunity to explain why you’re applying for this job, with this company, and why they should want to hire you. It’s an act of salesmanship, so you should take the time to write a fresh one with each new application.

Cover letters become more important the higher-paying or more-specialized the job is. While it might not be super important to write a full cover letter for a minimum-wage or entry-level position, it’s vitally important to write one for any job with a salary.

For more information on cover letter writing, including tips on what to write, and how to format it, see our blog posts Structuring and Formatting a Cover Letter and When and Why Do I Need a Cover Letter?, as well as our YouTube videos Introduction to Cover Letters and Cover Letters 2.0.

1.3 References

References are professional contacts that can speak to your efficacy as an employee. Many employers will contact references in the late stages of the hiring process, when they’ve narrowed the list of applicants down to two or three. Because of this, you shouldn’t include your references with your resumé, but as a separate document that you might even send later.

Make sure to ask your references before you write them down, and let them know when you’re using them. Include their name, business phone number and email address, and their relationship to you.

For more information, see our YouTube video Reference Ready.

2 Assessment

It’s important to remember that every aspect of an online application serves a screening purpose: employers use the data they glean about you to determine whether they’ll bring you along to the next round of hiring, and possibly to a job. Skills and Personality Assessments are an important tool for employers to narrow their hiring pool, so it’s important to take them seriously.

2.1 Personality Assessments

Employers use personality assessments to see if you’d be a good fit to the culture of their company, or if you’ll tend to act according to their policies in various situations. They’ll ask questions relating to interactions with troublesome customers or coworkers, and various others designed to determine whether you’re honest, hardworking, open to criticism, a team player, and self-sufficient. They’ll ask the same question with different wordings multiple times, to see if you’re paying attention or just clicking buttons.

Make sure to read through each question fully, and consider your answer before marking it. Some personality assessments let you go back and change answers, and some don’t – so be prepared.

2.2 Skills Assessments

A good number of employers, especially those looking for entry-level positions, use skills assessments to screen for applicants who can do the basic requirements of the job. As an example, Wal-Mart’s assessment has you make change for a customer using the fewest number of coins. Others include logic puzzles, scheduling problems, and computer skills.

When working through a skills assessment, make sure to read each question fully, and consider your answer. However, be wary of taking too long – many skills assessments are also timed. Good luck!

3 Conclusion

Part II concludes our series on What You Should Know about Online Job Applications. We at the Career Center wish you the best of luck on your job search! If you have any other questions or ideas for another blog post, feel free to contact us by email or phone: (225) 231-3733.

We also have a number of Online Application walkthroughs on our YouTube channel, and we’re adding more all the time.

Written by Case Duckworth

Email and Telephone Etiquette for Jobseekers

Ahh, technology. It can make communication so much faster, easier, and more convenient. But if used improperly, it can also give the wrong impression. It’s important for all professionals, especially those currently on the job hunt, to make sure they’re using technology to present a positive image of themselves. Recently, we posted an article about Social Media Etiquette for Jobseekers. Today, we follow that up with the dos and don’ts of email and telephone etiquette.

be easy to get in touch with

If you make it too difficult for hiring managers to get ahold of you, they’re going to move to the next name on their list. Follow these tips:

  • Ensure that your email and voicemail are both in working order, and that your mailboxes are not full. You would hate for a hiring manager’s message to bounce back and be unable to reach you.
  • Make sure that your name is featured in both your email address and your voicemail message. That way, the hiring manager will be assured that they’re reached the right person.
  • Check your email and voicemails at least 3 times a week while you’re job hunting. Respond to messages promptly. Otherwise, you may miss opportunities for interviews.

Choose your email address carefully

Your email address is one of the first pieces of information a hiring manager will see about you. Make sure it gives a good first impression. If your email address does not meet the qualifications below, you can create a new email account which you use only for job searching.

  • The best email addresses for the job search are simple – they include your name and not much else. Examples: ahamilton14@gmail.com; elisabeth.schuyler@outlook.com; aaronb48@yahoo.com.
  • Do not use an email address that could be seen as suggestive or offensive, such as hotmama@gmail.com or thuglife420@yahoo.com.
  • Avoid using an email address that highlights your personal interests, unless those interests are relevant to the job. For example, ilovecats@outlook.com might work if applying to a cat shelter, but not really for anything else.
  • Make things easy on the hiring manager – avoid email addresses that are difficult to type (such as i7c4a9r5u2s3@live.com).
  • Don’t confuse the hiring manager by giving an email address with someone else’s name on it.
  • Beware of age discrimination: it can be dangerous to use the year of your birth in your email address (such as johnqpublic1970@cox.net). Also, be aware that certain older email domains, including aol.com, hotmail.com, and bellsouth.net, are seen as old-fashioned by some hiring managers.

write like a professional

  • Treat every email you send to a hiring manager as if it’s being graded by your strictest English teacher. Use perfect spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. If this is not your strength, you may want to get someone to proofread your message before you send it.
  • Use language which is more formal than casual. Steer clear of abbreviations such as “u r” for “you are.” Do not use slang, emojis, multiple exclamation points, etc.
  • Start with a formal greeting – such as “Dear Mr. Jefferson” – and end with a closing and signature – for example, “Thank you for your time, James Madison”.
  • The first email you send to a hiring manager counts as your cover letter. It needs to include all the information a cover letter normally contains, such as what job you’re applying for, details of why you’d be a great fit for the job and why you’re excited about it, and where you are in the application process.
  • Double-check before you hit “send” – did you remember to attach your resume?

sound like a professional

  • Make sure your outgoing voicemail message is appropriate. If your message is more funny than serious – or if you have an impersonal, machine-generated message – change it.
  • Tone of voice is crucial when you’re having a phone conversation with a hiring manager. Smile and sound enthusiastic. Also, they won’t hire you if they can’t understand you, so make sure that you speak slowly and clearly.
  • Be careful to use proper grammar, avoiding slang or casual expressions.
  • If they call at a bad time – when you’re someplace noisy or distracting – let it go to voicemail and call them back later.
  • If you have a phone interview scheduled, set aside a quiet place with good reception. (You can call 225-231-3733 to book our conference room for a phone interview.) Have your resume and notes in front of you – a phone interview is like an open-book test.

If you have any more questions about email or telephone etiquette for jobseekers, don’t hesitate to call us at 225-231-3733.

Written by Lynnette Lee

Our Top 5 Work-from-Home Job Boards and Websites

Working from home is the name of the game at the moment. But often, looking for remote jobs leaves job seekers open to scams and shady leads. So, let’s look at our favorite websites to find safe and legitimate work-from-home/remote opportunities and resources.

As with job searching in general, your most efficient way to find a remote job is through networking. Since in remote roles there naturally has to be a higher trust level between employer and employee, hiring someone that comes recommended makes even more sense for an employer than in a traditional office-based role.

Now let’s look at our top 5 websites that specialize in listing remote or work-from-home opportunities. Links to all these sites are available on our website, and you can find more detailed info on our YouTube channel in our work from home playlist.

Our top 5 are:

  1. Our number 1 website has the funky name Rat Race Rebellion.  It is one of the oldest websites dedicated to finding safe remote jobs and still one of the best. It gives you a good overview of all different kinds of remote jobs available, from high level specialist and manager roles to taking surveys, mystery shopping and everything in between. Since all content is free and you don’t need to sign up or create a profile, the website features a lot of ads. If you stay clear of those and keep to the actual content, this website will be of great use.
  2. Next in our top 5 is Remote Planet. Remote Planet is an entire community for people who want to lead a location-independent or digital-nomad lifestyle. While it features job boards and links to many companies who mainly work remotely, it also contains lots of information on tax issues and other special topics relating to a remote lifestyle. One of its prime assets is that it provides links to a lot of small remotely working companies that might be hard to find otherwise.
  3. Our #3 pick is Flex Jobs, probably the most well known flexible-work job board, as it has had a lot of national media exposure. Two words of caution about Flex Jobs. It does not only feature remote opportunities but has a lot of part-time and project-based jobs that are actually tied to a specific location. And, it charges you a fee to access contact information for the specific job opportunities. So, before you pay, make sure that they have jobs that are a good fit for you. Check out our Flex Jobs video on our YouTube channel to see how you research their open jobs before you pay.
  4. Next on the list is Power to Fly.  Like Remote Planet, this is much more than just a job board. It is an online community with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, led by women and mainly created for women. Power to Fly features lots of openings at Fortune 100 companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, or Dow Jones. It is a general job board, and you will have to use the term “remote” in the location field to find the work-at-home roles. Besides listing jobs and linking to companies’ job openings, it also features virtual events such as live chats, webinars about career and job search related topics, panel discussions, and virtual job fairs.
  5. Last but not least there is good old Indeed.  Most of you will be familiar with Indeed as a “regular” job board. But if you type “remote” into the “where” field, you will find a lot of remote leads. Read the job postings carefully though, as a number of them will want you to live at a certain location although the job itself is remote or it is only partly remote.

If you have any questions or would like help with your remote job search, the Career Center is here to help. Contact us at 225-231-3733 or at www.careercenterbr.com.

Written by Anne Nowak