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Combine Feed-Creating Tools with Email Alerts to Nab That Job
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:12 AM on August 26, 2008
Today and through the rest of this week, we'll be taking a look at tips for finding, interviewing for, negotiating over, and succeeding in a new gig. First off is making inconvenient, low-tech job listing sites—the kind without RSS feeds, email alerts, or any other technologies beyond 2001—much more manageable through a combination of a "page scraper," or RSS generator, and automatic RSS-to-email services to make sure you're never near the bottom of the resume stack. Photo by shadytrees.
Lots of state and government agencies list their jobs on static HTML pages that are updated manually, with no syndication feed or user tools like email alerts to help out eager job-seekers. We've covered a number of tools that "scrape" web pages that change regularly and turn them into RSS content, but many of those early-Web-2.0 tools, such as rssfwd, are either regularly down or have instituted limited free trials.
One good solution is the free Page2RSS site. Enter in the page you want to watch—if it's just a re-directing URL, Page2RSS automatically grabs the correct page—and then right-click on the "RSS 2.0" link on the right and choose "Copy Link Location" or a similar option. If you're going to be watching multiple sites, paste that long RSS address in a text document, separating the feeds on separate lines.
PageTiki is a similar service with a nicer, more user-friendly interface, but limits your overall watching time by making each site scan cost "TikiBucks." You'll likely have gotten your new job by the time you run out, but anyone watching a lot of sites might run out before they're ready.
If you're a Firefox user who isn't so hot on the whole feeds thing, the free Firefox extension Update Scanner, which we've previously written about, provides instant in-browser updates for quick response times.
If you're not already using an RSS reader—a web site or software tool that monitors and delivers feed updates—now's the time to get started. Free accounts are offered at the web-based Google Reader and Bloglines, and free software tools like the Newsgator RSS Suite are there for the taking. What's the difference? Well, our own Adam Pash has laid out the pros and cons of each.
Once you've set up your custom-rolled update feeds and loaded them into your reader, you might want to hedge your bets against a day where you're too busy to check it—or the new results come so fast and frequent that they don't show up on your start page. There are lots of defunct and not-free RSS-to-email converters out there—I can tentatively recommend FeedMailer as one that seems to work as advertised, and doesn't appear to be going dead any time soon. FeedMailer lets you set the frequency of your email updates, from as-it-happens to daily digests, and choose whether they arrive as HTML or plain-text mail.
Now you've got pretty universal coverage of low- and high-tech job sites, with a feed reader keeping track of everything that's new and email alerts arriving as a second-chance reminder.
What rss creation tools and email converters can our experienced feed-watchers recommend? What non-RSS page-monitoring tools have worked for you? Let's hear your recommendations in the comments.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Mark
Posted August 26, 2008 11:09 AM
I thought I'd share my personal favourite RSS generator: www.dapper.net.
It's quite advanced compared to Page2RSS but the interface is friendly enough & it provides heaps of features.
AdamG
Posted 2:29 AM 26/8/08
I usually rely upon the email reminder scheme for such sites, so this is a very useful tool, not only for 'Nab That Job', but for following those sites that are still sitting on daily e-mail service. thanks Kevin!
AdamG
earth2marsh
Posted 3:26 AM 26/8/08
I've been quite satisfied with Yahoo! Pipes to scrape pages and generate feeds. It may not be as easy as some of the above methods, but the degree of control is pretty great. For example, all grade-school jobs in Maine seem to be posted to a site that has no feeds, but with a little elbow grease, it can be done.
Clever Google Alerts can be useful too on the right occasions.
earth2marsh
Jay
Posted 4:16 AM 26/8/08
I've been successfully using Feed43 to scrape pages for updates for years now. It's powerful and free -- just inserts a small text ad at the bottom of each feed item.
Jay
pbarfield
Posted 9:48 PM 26/8/08
I wholeheartedly recommend UpdatePatrol, which is a tool to monitor not only RSS feeds, but also any web page that does NOT have a RSS feed, for updates. You can even have the changed pages emailed to you with changes highlighted, if you prefer your email client over the UpdatePatrol built-in browser.
pbarfield
72ba
Posted 3:09 AM 26/8/08
I've been using Simply Hired RSS feeds during my (still ongoing I'm afraid) job search and find it extremely useful. Simply Hired is a search engine for tons of different job sites like Monster, Career Builder, etc. One of the things I like about Simply Hired is that they also include a lot of small local job sites in addition to the big guys. After you do a custon search there's an option at the top of the page to create an RSS feed from that search.
When a job is listed that matches my search criteria, I get an update in Google Reader which I can check on my BlackBerry wherever I am. I have my resume and sample cover letters in Google Docs so I can apply as soon as I see the job posted.
For example, one of the jobs I'm seeking is as a sys admin in a public school district so I selected:
Company name: "school district"
Job description: network
State: PA
I try to keep my search as generic as possible without creating too many false positives. I run similar searches replacing "network" with "microsoft" or "windows" (you get the idea). Using a more common search term like "technology" returned waaay too many results because so many school job descriptions use the word. This method would probably not work unless you have some more specific terms to add. If I took away the company name I would get a zillion posts every day with just "network" and "PA". If I added the city field with something like "philadelphia", I would miss out on jobs in surrounding areas like King of Prussia or West Chester.
If you want to rely completely on RSS feeds, I would suggest checking the actual job sites in addition to receiving the feeds for at least another week to ensure your search criteria is correct. Mistakes could be very costly.
I've noticed some companies providing their own RSS feeds lately so check that out as well. It would be a good thing to mention in an interview: I became aware of this opportunity because I subscribe to your RSS feed. I really want to work at Acme Corp so I eagerly check the feed every day!
72ba
cgranier
Posted 2:00 AM 26/8/08
Alltop ( [jobs.alltop.com] ) has a nice, frequently updated list of job openings.
cgranier
project83
Posted 4:22 PM 26/8/08
I use Feed My Inbox ([www.feedmyinbox.com]) to subscribe to my favorite feeds via email. It's much easier than feedmailer and does not require an account.
project83