Q: How do I job-hunt online?
A: The first thing is to create a list of KEYWORDS to use in your search. 6 to 10 keywords should do it, but you can try different combinations as you learn
- The first word would be: South Africa, so that you don’t get jobs all over the world! (Unless you want them, of course!) Do not leave this one off your list.
- Then the opportunity you are seeking: Job, or Internship, or Apprenticeship, or Work Experience, or Learnership or Trainee, or a combination. You can also other words you find, like Matric, Vacancy or Choose which words suit you now. You can have three or four words in this category and change them around.
- Then the areas where you are prepared to travel to. You could add (for example) Johannesburg, or even Gauteng, but it is a good idea to choose suburbs or areas closer to home, to begin with. If you find you are not getting many useful results, then widen the search. If you can look at a map and find all the suburbs or districts, that you are prepared to travel to.
- Then add the Industry and/or department or job title you are looking for. Examples:
* Engineering, Mechanical Fitter Apprentice,
* Retail, Manager Trainee.
* Health, Internship. - As you start searching you will find certain websites are just not worth the time and data! Ignore them in future. But you will also find websites that collect all the jobs from various job websites including these (in 2020):
- Indeed,
- Glassdoor,
- Google for Jobs,
- CareerJet,
- co.za,
- Careers24,
- JobMail,
- co.za,
- PNet
Some of these will ask you to register and/or ask if you want to be sent alerts for jobs (which match your keywords), come in. You can always unsubscribe.
Then there are websites which focus on specific industries or organisations for example:
This website also gives you links to all government departments which advertise jobs.
This website focuses on Marketing and Media jobs, but offers some others as well.
- Companies: If you want to work at a specific company, add the name of the company to your key words. You should find ‘Careers’ or ‘Vacancies’ ‘Join our Team’.
- Police, SANDF, the Navy and AirForce and Nurses all apply directly to their nearest base or online on a prescribed form.
How often to do a search? Every day or at least every 2-3 days.
Further help:
https://careerplanet.co.za/how-do-i-answer-a-job-advertisement/
More reading on this subject:
https://careerplanet.co.za/top-tips-for-online-job-hunting/
