The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently updated their web site www.LDSJobs.org. Be warned, the update is in beta testing (which they proclaim on every page). Like all new web sites, there are problems. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is not in the web site itself, but in the registration process, which is separate from the site, but the intergral access portal.
Be patient with the bugs. This web site is going to be well-worth the perserverance.
First, the site provides a life-time career planning service free of charge. Unlike some of the other big boards it focuses not only on finding jobs and developing careers, it provides a structured forum for people who want to enroll in education or vocational training and for people who want to start or improve a business.
Second, it helps people not only identify long-term and short-term career goals, but it helps them create action steps with deadlines. Simple "click when completed" features allow people to hide completed action and revisit them as desired.
Third, the website use a very simple search feature to search for job postings, companies, schools, small business, and community programs. The searches identify job postings unique to the LDSJobs site, but also aggregates jobs from more than 3,000 major companies throughout the English speaking world. In addition, each job posting includes a link to LinkedIn (the popular business networking system). I found one job at a major employer--and 7,416 contacts on LinkedIn for that company.
Fourth, people looking for jobs may complete a "Candidate Profile" that includes work history, eduction, skills, interests, 30 second introductions, and what they call Power Statements. Companies may then view the candidate's proficel once it is 90% complete. I saw one company identify 25 potential candidates, send an email message (easily done within the web site) to several, and favorite another candidate. One candidate said that he received 2 job offers in one weekend using this system--IN 2 WEEKS.
Fifth, the web site is packed with articles on how to survive unemployment, present your skills impressively, write resumes, improve businesses, evaluate vocational training, and much more.
The web site isn't perfect. As I stated earlier it has troubles with the registrations system. The site also times out too quickly. Especially if you are writing goals, power statements or your work history. The site also has difficulties with people who want to do two things at once (such as look for a job and enroll in vocational training.
The developers say that many of these problems will be fixed shortly. They fix some things each day, and do a major upgrade on the 15th of each month. In addition, they are already translating the site in Spanish and Portuguese. The translated sites should be available by January 1.
As I said, this is a site that can help so many people. The Church of Jesus Christ offers the site free of charge to anybody who wants to use it. You won't have to deal with unwanted pop-up ads or obnoxious banners. The church subsidizes all the costs with no eye to generating revenue.
Give the site a few weeks to work out some of the bugs. Then, try LDSJobsd.org. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Please let me hear your experiences, reactions, or suggestions.
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