How To Find a Job with RSS

 

 

ORIGINALLY POSTED bryanonnor.com

The economy may not be in tip top shape at the moment and if you're in the job market than consider using RSS to help deliver the most up to date and highest quality opportunities to you.

But what is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a way to broadcast web content that changes frequently. A good example of this is job listings ince they are updated daily and syndicated out to subscribers looking for work via an RSS feed.

  Why is RSS good for job searches?

Job opportunities come directly to you and only ones you specify.

New feed items come in as they are posted instead of delayed by days or weeks like classified ads.

RSS feeds can be customized to target the exact type of job, location, and pay range you're looking for.

Feeds are searchable so you can look for keywords among the jobs that are delivered via RSS.

  How do I get started?

RSS feeds are delivered to you using and RSS reader. Readers pull content from all the websites you tell it to and displays them to you in one place.

Recommended RSS Reader: Google Reader

All the functionality you need with good saving capabilities. Sign up for an account or login with your Google credentials and have a look around. Feeds you are subscribed to show up in the left hand column with an unread count for feed items you haven't looked at yet. There won't be any to start out with which is why we need to find RSS feeds.

Other RSS Readers: Bloglines, Newsgator, My Yahoo, Netvibes.

  Where can I find RSS Feeds?

In order to add feeds to your RSS reader you need the get the RSS feed URLs from websites. There are tens of hundreds of job sites out there but check on your favorite targeted website for the RSS symbol or the words 'subscribe' or 'RSS feed'. Here area few to get you started:

Design: AIGA Jobs

Development: DevBistro Jobs

Writing: Freelance Switch Writing

Medical: Healthcare Jobs for RN 

Education: Inside Higher Ed 

Engineering: ThinkJobs - MD

Other major job sites: Career Builder, Monster, Simply Hired

If you click on an RSS feed link and the page look like code just copy and paste the url into the 'add feed' box in Google Reader

  How can I make the jobs more targeted?

Moast job sites will have a search field where you can input your term and when you hit search the results page will often have its own RSS feed so you can stay updated on your search term on that particular site. Many sites also have ways for you to drill down and specify your job by price and location and often these additional details will have their of RSS feeds you can subscribe to.

  A philosophy for sorting and responding

A slight drawback to so much immediate information is an overload of job opportunities. Before you get overwhelmed devise a system to sort through and save jobs. Google Reader has a staring system you can use to place jobs you want to inquire about into the starred items folder.

Many jobs will come in that are close to what you are looking for but in most cases there will be so many opportunities to sort through that taking time to respond further to each job that is close would be impossible. Save the opportunities that could really work for you and from there contact the poster through the website or through and email provided in the posting.

  Happy Hunting

Staying up to date on the latest job postings with RSS is the fasted way to spot new work and the best way to see what employers are looking for in your field.

Glossary

 

RSS - Rich Site Summary Syndication - the process by witch web content is broadcast over the internet Subscriber - the people who get RSS feeds delivered to them through feed readers Feed Reader - A service that collects RSS feeds from many sites and displays them in one place Feed - a shortened term for an RSS feed of a website's content Feed URL - the web address for an RSS feed (will often display as code) Starred Item - a highlighted feed item that is put in a separate folder in Google Reader