Largest Job Sites

Monster, Yahoo! HotJobs are still good options

By all accounts, Monster.com lives up to its name, with countless pages of career advice and over one million job postings. The job listings cover positions in all industries, in all locations and at all levels for part-time, seasonal, temporary and contract jobs. Monster Networking is a feature that connects people in the same industry to provide possible leads. Monster Learning is a directory of online degree programs. Job seekers can subscribe to targeted newsletters, browse message boards on various topics and read the job site's blog. The Privacy Plus feature allows those who post resumes to block viewing access for certain companies (such as their current employers). Reviews are nearly unanimous in listing Monster as the best big job site.

Monster has also recently implemented a profile page for users that allows for greater networking abilities. The profile tool is still in its beta form, but is an effort by Monster to keep up with the success that other networking sites like LinkedIn have seen. On the profile page there is a recent activity feed that displays job, resume and applications activity. Another new feature is Monster Mobile, which allows users to easily search the latest listings from their mobile device.

Job seekers agree there is an extensive listing of jobs on Monster, but a common complaint is there are too many temp agencies and recruiters posting jobs. Some job hunters say they get lost in a sea of information, and recruiters are overwhelmed by the glut of resumes from unqualified applicants. According to LoveToKnow.com, Monster's popularity comes with a price: "ad-rich pages (often, an ad loads before you're allowed to go to the next page)." Experts do agree, however, that Monster.com can be a good place to survey the landscape and see what's out there.

Yahoo! HotJobs is also one of the best mega-sites, according to job site reviews. HotJobs makes it easy to find jobs and allows you to save your job searches and listings. Its location search is more specific than the engine at Monster, allowing a user to look in smaller towns as well as large cities. HotJobs' privacy features include HotBlock, which allows users to block specific companies from viewing their resume -- a helpful tool for people who fear that their current employer might stumble across their online resume. Job seekers can subscribe to any of nine free newsletters that cater to segments of the market such as technology, government, sales, health care and college grads. The discussion boards at HotJobs receive a lot of traffic and are another good source of information and career advice.

Although HotJobs allows postings from headhunters and agencies, job hunters choose whether their searches include listings from staffing firms. The site has recently partnered with more than 350 newspapers and saw its traffic increase by 53 percent in 2007, according to The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Monster saw a 4 percent increase.