February 1999 Column
FREE
STUFF ON THE INTERNET
This month will be
dedicated to free resources that can be useful to any recruiter. We have listed
sites that offer free software and then other sites that offer free services or
information. Please email us with any good sites you are aware of so we can
reprint the updated list at a later date.
Use these search engines
to search for resume or job posting sites, corporate headquarter sites or any
other type of site you can imagine.
Would
you like free email services?
These services are free but you
have to put up with some advertising.
Need
Virus protection? Don’t be without it.
If you receive a lot of email
resumes, get virus protection. I probably get several infected resumes per
month.
http://www.drsolomon.com/home/home.cfm
Do
you download programs? You need an unzipper.
WinZip is the best I’ve seen
for Windows users. Always have an unzipping program handy.
Adobe
Acrobat – What for?
Now and then you will receive a
resume in a xxx.pdf format. You
will need this program to open the file.
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
Visit these site for all types
of shareware/freeware downloads. If you can think of a type of software – they
have at these sites.
http://cws.internet.com/32newapps.html
http://www.boxtopsoft.com/download.html
While there are many
subscriber services on the Internet to assist with finding resumes or
advertising available jobs, the Internet has many free sites of use to the
working recruiter. Below are links
to some of our favorites:
Need
to place a job ad in an unfamiliar city, or
want to read the newspaper in another city?
http://www.naa.org/hotlinks/index.asp
Weather:
Want to know the forecast for
where you are or where you are going? Try
clicking on: http://www.att.net/weather/index.html
http://www.weather.com/twc/homepage.twc
Schools,
local government offices, chamber of commerce offices by city:
Trying to sell a candidate on
relocation and need quick answers on schools?
Try http://www.att.net/find/#maps_directions
and from that page, click the link on city guide.
How
about checking out mortgage rates for your candidate?
http://www.loansurfer.com/main.asp
will get you the latest information, including “what if” scenarios.
Need
quick apartment information for your candidate in almost any city?
http://www.rent.net/ctg/cgi-bin/RentNet/Home
Travel
arrangements made simple:
http://reservations.previewtravel.com/Webair3/Profile/UserType
Don’t
recognize the area code in a message or can’t remember the area code for a
city?
http://www.555-1212.com/ACLOOKUP.HTML
Links
to the USPS for rates, Express Mail package tracking, change of address…etc.
Federal
Express information and package tracking:
United
Parcel Service:
Trying
to find someone’s phone number or email address, or just want to cut down on
the cost of directory assistance calls?
Try some of these great free
links:
MESA (MetaEmailSearchAgent)
http://mesa.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/
allows you to submit a single query to multiple search engines, including
Bigfoot, DejaNews, Four11, IAF, Infospace, Swissinfo, and suchen.de. You get to
specify how long to wait, and it might time out returning no hits.
http://www.555-1212.com/
is an on-line directory of telephone numbers, compiled from the three
major telephone information vendors. Unlike many other search engines, it has
few graphics to slow you down. It provides several other directory services as
well.
http://www.four11.com/
is a commercial online directory service with over 10 million listings
(as of August 1997) All Internet users are provided free basic access, which
includes a free listing and free searching. You can also access the service by
sending mail to info@four11.com.
http://www.yahoo.com People Search which currently uses Four11.
http://www.switchboard.com
Switchboard is a Web-based telephone directory; its names are compiled from
published white pages directories and other publicly-available sources. If you
register a password with Switchboard, you can add additional information to your
listing, including your email address. You can arrange to hide your email
address (or other parts of your listing), while still allowing people to email
you a brief note via Switchboard.
http://www.anywho.com AnyWho is a white pages and yellow pages directory service
that encourages people to update their listing to include e-mail addresses.
http://www.phonebooke.com
Phonebooke lets you search for people in the USA by name or phone number, and
provides forms to interface with many other search engines, including Four11,
the AT&T Internet directory, NYNEX' Big Yellow, and 555-1212.com.
http://www.bigfoot.com
Bigfoot has about 100 million white pages listings and 8 million e-mail listings
as of December 1996. The company focuses on value-added services for e-mail
users, complementing those of ISPs.
http://www.altavista.com
Digital's Altavista search engine indexes Web pages and Usenet postings. If you
suspect the person you are looking for has created a web page or posted to
Usenet, you may be able to find them this way.
Want
to check out layoff
announcements?
http://recruitmentextra.com/reconline.html
is a good source of
this and other good recruiting information…and it’s free!
Looking
for a quick review of today’s news?
How
about a wrap up of the day’s sports news?
Again, remember to
email us with your interesting sites.