USING NEWSPAPERS
One of the main traditional sources of job vacancies, newspapers still remain significant even in this online era!
And to use newspapers effectively in your job hunt, you need to know a little bit about how the job information is organised in your particular papers.
This means doing a little bit of research over a couple of weeks.
Collect the major newspapers in your area for a week or two... and that includes any Regional / Local / Free newspapers if available.
While you do this, see if you can locate all of the following features:
- Which day/days of the week contain the most/best "Jobs Vacant" section?
- What different groups of jobs appear in your papers?
Are there more advertisements in certain groups on particular days of the week?
- Do any groups of advertisements use mostly abbreviated words? Which groups?
Why do you think abbreviations are used?
- Can you see any advertisements which might be "dubious" or misleading?
How are they misleading?
- Don't try to count them, but can you estimate how many job ads in the Saturday edition of your paper would be especially suitable for people of your age/qualifications.
What does this suggest to you (if anything)?
- Look closely at some of the larger display ads. Try to write down the information you can get from them about the job, the conditions, qualifications and experience required, etc.
Compare these to the smaller ads. Are they really different? How? Which type of advertisement is easier for you to reply to? Why?
You will probably find that each newspaper ALSO publishes their job vacancies online.
Make a point of checking out, bookmarking and watching the online versions of your local papers. Keep an eye out for any major differences between the online and print versions... and decide to use one (or both) regularly!
Those classifieds advertisements are really tricky!
Return to Find a Job index.