Job Search Tips: Looking for a job online? How to receive email job alerts from job sites

Article by S. Gordon-Jeffery


I wonder how many of us know that job sites usually allow you to receive email alerts from their site for FREE? Did you know?

www.carbbeanjobs.com -- yes this link is clickable.

Well, if you don't know or know but aren't sure how to sign up let me give a practical example using a site that is popularly used. Caribbean Jobs --www.caribbeanjobs.com provides you with the means to create your own account profile so you can sign in to their site, upload your resume as well as set up email alerts for different companies or job types to be emailed to you. You can even set how often you wish to see job information from each company or a job category. The options are daily, weekly and of course monthly.  

So let's take a view of the site: go to Caribbeanjobs.com

On the front page of the site there are several options. The most important one for now is Register/Log In (it's at the top right corner of the page). Click on 'Register', if you aren't already a member or 'Log In' if you are. I am going into register for my friends who don't have an account so you can understand how it works. There's a simple form on the register page asking you type in your name, email address and create a new password. Below that there are other options presented to you: To receive email alerts for jobs and other products/services Caribbean Jobs would like to offer to you. You can decide to leave all options clicked (default settings have all options ticked) or you can just keep the email alerts only. After you're done just click "Register". You should receive an email confirmation sent to your email, click confirm and alerts will get sent to you, usually as soon as jobs matching your preferences are found.  Now here comes the fun part; you choose your job alerts/preferences.

Choosing what jobs to receive: Step by step

1. Go to the front page and click on sign in.

2. Type in your email and password (or if you cyaa bother like me, allow your web browser to save the password for you.)

3. Go to Profile and fill out a few things about yourself.

4. Go back to first page of "Accounts" and click on "Job Alerts".
The good thing about this website is that you can have up to ten different alert types. So for example, you can look for all jobs related to Sales or Customer Service and even jobs for a Plummer if say for example you have a cousin who wants you to keep an eye out for him/her. Click on "Add New Job Alert" and type in a company name for example Sagicor and add in the type of job you want to see from them. Choose wisely you only get ten.

5. Choose the frequency of the alerts (choose daily or weekly).

6. Click "Save Alert" and yuh good to go. 

Now as I said, there are other job sites that allow you to save job alerts but I chose this one because its one of my favorites and it has a very large database of jobs from both Jamaica and the Caribbean, and importantly they don't just have what you would call 'white collar' jobs like some other sites may mainly publish. So go try them out and remember to add in your CV/resume.  Now, I am going to talk about local job blog sites/websites, maybe mi bias...mi nuh know. :p

Local websites and blogs
There are several local job sites that have emerged recently that I follow and take very keen interest in. Kudos to the Webmasters/Administrators on each of them, their jobs can't be easy. They have to sweep the internet as well as other sources and see what's out there, and try to figure out what's real and what's fake, not an easy task at all as scammers are becoming more sophisticated in avoiding detection.

 I believe though that people do receive help from them, and so while I wouldn't say it should be your only source of information, they do provide useful alerts that should be taken seriously.  Usually how you receive alerts is through an RSS feed they provide, now please don't ask me I don't know how that works, but if they provide a gadget to click on where that's concerned you can click on it for description of the blog's content.

Another way is to click their 'Follow' button. You do that once, if it's a blogspot.com from Blogger. Every time you sign into your Google accounts you will receive job alerts in real time as their site is updated. Also you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook if they are on these social media sites. You can even consider signing into the blog and becoming a member which means you get first contact with the info that's published. Cool uh?! Yes, so there are your options. Below I'm going to list a few sites that I trust wid mi eye an' teeth fi recommend to yuh - both established sites and blog sites, social media pages.

Here's my list, in no particular ranking:
Caribbean Jobs -- www.caribbeanjobs.com
Caribbean Jobs Online -- www.caribbeanjobsonline.com
Splash Jamaica (you can also get great career tips from them) -- www.splashjamaica.com
Go-Jamaica JobSmart (The Gleaner website) -- www.go-jamaica.com/jobsmart/index.php
Employment Jamaica -- www.employmentjamaica.com
Nurse Plus Plus -- www.nurseplusplus.com/jobs/job_listing.php
Career Jamaica -- www.careerjamaica.com
Learn 4 Good -- www.learn4good.com/jobs/
Jobs Postings Caribbean -- https://jobspostingscaribbean.blogspot.com
I Need A Job Jamaica -- https://www.facebook.com/INeedAJobJamaica/


Okay, so these are my preferences, there are more sites no doubt, but these I check on regularly. All the best on your job search guys and comment, share and like this post. Thanks.  ^_^