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Personal Finance
Looking into job sites
June 12, 2001: 7:13 a.m. ET

Recomendations for researching companies through online job sites
By Peter Weddle
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - What does an employer's Web site really tell you?

Employers large and small are now posting open jobs and organizational information on the Internet.

Some, such as PepsiCo (www.pepsijobs.com), have launched stand-alone sites dedicated to connecting with prospective employment candidates. Others, like Toyota (www.toyota.com/jobs), have set up recruitment areas on their public sites.

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Whatever the format, however, all of these venues provide a special keyhole into an organization, often offering some very telling insights into its culture, priority and values.

How can you acquire this insight when you visit an organization's recruitment site? Ask yourself the following questions:

Content

  1. Does the organization provide information about itself on the site, or does it simply post a lot of open jobs and ask you to apply in the dark?
  2. Does the information that is provided celebrate the contributions of employees or the feats of the CEO and the executive team?
  3. Is there information about the culture of the organization and the kinds of people who are most likely to succeed as its employees? Or are you left to guess about whether or not you will fit in?
  4. Are you given a complete description of the organization's compensation policies, benefits, career development and other support programs, or are you expected to ignore such factors and apply on faith?
  5. Is the information on the site well written and quality assured or does the organization not worry about what you'll think of typos, grammatical errors and misspelled words?
Graphics

  1. Is the site illustrated with pictures and images or are you treated to pages and pages of words?
  2. If the site does include pictures, do they change from time to time? Or do you see the same old tired images every time you visit?
  3. Who or what is pictured on the site: the people who work for the organization or its products and buildings?
  4. If there are pictures of people on the site, do they involve employees or the CEO and executive team?
  5. If there are pictures of employees on the site, do they depict a culturally diverse workforce where all kinds of people are welcome? Or is there a lack of gender, age and/or ethnic diversity?
Functionality

  1. Does the site provide a way for you to ask a question, or does it simply talk at you about itself?
  2. If it does provide a way for you to ask a question, does the response arrive in a timely fashion and provide the information for which you're looking? Or are you ignored or sent a generic marketing message?
  3. Have the site's operating features been quality assured, or are you subjected to pages that don't open and links that don't work?
  4. Does the organization provide a way for you to submit your resume online, or does it force you to log off and send in the document by mail?
  5. Is the site designed to download quickly, or must you wait a half an hour for the home page to open?
Obviously, the answers to these questions won't tell you everything about a prospective employer. They will, however, give you a sense of how the organization looks at people. In other words, does it view employees and job seekers as "preferred customers" or simply as a bother? Having that insight can help you make a much more satisfying employment decision.

Peter Weddle is one of the nation's leading experts in online job searching. He has written numerous books, including "Career Fitness" and "CliffsNotes: Finding a Job on the Web." For more information, please visit his site at www.weddles.com.  graphic

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.