Before you cast your resume upon the online waters, remember that there is no substitute for personal communication with people who work at the place you'd like to apply, especially those who influence hiring decisions. Most of your impact in a job application process is usually made in an interview, but you need to get in the door first. After you have checked with friends, family, classmates, teachers and colleagues (current and former) for potential job openings in fields that interest you, then you can start blasting the Internet with your resume. Be as efficient with your time conducting a job search as you would on the job itself. Now that the caveats are out of the way, read on for career-themed sites to which you may want to consider posting your resume.

Websites for Posting Your Resume

Job boards can be divided into three main categories: traditional, aggregators, and niche. The breakdown is as follows: though traditional job boards cast a wide net for your resume, they are sometimes not user-friendly. They are evolving to become more sophisticated in their search and social-networking capacities. Job aggregators are websites that pull many job offerings from various websites (including individual companies') all into one place, much like the website Expedia does for the travel industry. Finally, there are niche sites, which are usually the best places to focus industry-specific job searches. The challenge is finding the right ones among the thousands.

Traditional Job Boards

• Your college career center's online network
• CareerBuilder
• Yahoo! HotJobs
• Monster
• Career Journal

Job Aggregators

• Indeed
• Simply Hired
• Realmatch

Niche Job Boards

• SnagAJob (hourly and part-time jobs)
• Cool Works (seasonal)
• Allhealthcarejobs.com (healthcare)
• Nurse.com (nursing)
• Studentjobs.gov (range of employment opportunities for students within the US Federal Government)
• LatPro (Hispanic & bilingual professionals)
• AllRetailJobs.com (retail)
• Dice (computer, IT, technology)
• Hcareers (hospitality)
• eFinancialCareers (finance, banking, investment banking, financial markets)
• TalentZoo.com (communications)
• lawjobs.com (law)
• Other industry-specific job boards that are too numerous to list

Other

• VisualCV (create cutting-edge online resumes with multimedia)

LinkedIn and Online Social Networking

Get on LinkedIn, the biggest social networking site for professionals. Post your resume. Research companies by learning about/from the individual people who work there, and by looking at company profile pages. Consult your own network with questions about job openings and reach out to people who could give you an "in" at a desired company. Many companies actively recruit on LinkedIn, and even if they don't, you can still leverage relationships to get the insider knowledge you need to get hired.

Companies also recruit on Facebook, Twitter, and their own websites. Some have even famously used the virtual multi-player online world Second Life. Try the company blog or "careers" section for the latest job openings or HR contact information in the event the company is not hiring but still wants to receive resumes for future reference.

Beyond the Internet

Remember, nothing is better than targeting your job search to the specific organization, roles, industries, or locations that interest you. Don't spend all your time online. Set up interviews and get out there and meet people.

Then called the Rasmussen Practical School of Business, Rasmussen College was founded on September 1, 1900 in St. Paul, Minnesota by Walter Rasmussen. Today, Rasmussen College is a provider of online degrees, delivering regionally accredited Bachelor's, Master's, and Associate's degree programs through its network of campuses and partnerships.