Alright, some of you probably have learned that the unemployment rate for Blacks is 13% (the national percentage is about 7.5%) and we also are aware that it is so difficult to find a good job nowadays. Simply finding a job isn’t enough, it has to be with substantial pay. So here are some sites I have come across that are really helpful!

Before we begin, we’re going to use an example career so you can see everything through and through so we’ll use my career: Library Science.

Now, when looking for jobs, everything is online nowadays. I don’t have an MLS or an MLA (Master degree) currently so I have to look for Library Technician/Assistant/Associate jobs and I have been working in libraries, both academic and public since I was in my mid-teens. That means I’ll put in Google: “Library Technician jobs – Maryland”. Find out the job name of what you want to get a job in, add your state or city name and click “Search”. Indeed and Simply Hired are good places to look but don’t be afraid to look in other spots but be cautious with Craigslist, the postings could be false.

Here are some other sites that are very useful:

SquawkFox: Resume and Cover Letter series
It is important to have a fantastic resume and cover letter. I was taught how to write one in high school but learned as I got older that not everyone got that built into their curriculum. SquawkFox is fantastic in explaining resumes and cover letter and how to write an effective one.

Here is her Resume Series

Here is her Cover Letter Series

I really like her action words list and her tips about it.

They’re really good, I highly recommend them. If you’re still stumped in writing resumes and cover letters, don’t worry this next site will help.

LiveCareer
This is a great site to help guide you to create your cover letter and resume by making you fill out a short questionnaire to see what you want to write for (Changing careers? Have gaps in your employment?) and even what career you’re tailoring your resume for (you wouldn’t apply for a library job with a resume you’d use to apply to an architecture position) and they let you pick out from a range of templates with easy-to-understand fill in guides so you are getting help in writing your resume and cover letters but you’re still reflected in your writing. It lets you tweak the writing in and mix and match until it is perfect and represents you in the best light for the position.

And you’ll be grateful for the free account you make there, you can save past resumes and cover letters, download them so you can put them in Microsoft Word or whatever you like. And here’s a quick tip – don’t send .doc to prospective job applications. Send .pdf instead because A) it looks more professional B) formatting can get screwy because people have different word processors C) it can’t be altered. And you can export word into .pdf easily, check on Google if you don’t know how.

O*Net
O*Net is great to find out job descriptions and the skills, tools and the educational requirements those positions need.

This is one for a Library Technician position

You can see the skills needed for the job, the tools, the knowledge that I would need and more. It also gives a bit of a look at the prospect projection for the job in the next few years (and, huzzah, it’s a growing field) and even the basic salary. If you really want to check the salary of a position, this next site will help you.

Salary.com
This site is really good if you want to find out the scope of how much a position is supposed to pay and the best part, it is localized to your area.

Here’s what it is for a Library Technician (here as “Technical Librarian I)

Lib tech Salary

And also you can look at another sheet that breaks down job statistics

This is great for you to research if you are underpaid or interviewing for a job where you negotiate your salary because remember, they may try to pay you less because of race and gender, make sure they stay fair.

Glassdoor
Glassdoor is great to find out if a company is as sterling as they present themselves to be. There’s salary information, interview information and reviews on office culture there. Of course, people with negative experiences are more likely to speak out than those with positive but when you see a business with too many complaining reviews, consider that a red flag.

About: Interviewing Questions
This is great to ready yourself for interview questions and also, there’s another page where there are specialized questions for jobs. This is really great for those who have jitters about interviewing because you never know what they’re going to ask.

And that’s The Arts! for this month. Next week is Ask Black Witch so send in questions! Submit using the submission forms on the right, email, comment, so many options. And remember: good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated.