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Unless you helped start Instagram you probably need a job. Maybe you already have a job, but it's not turning out the way you imagined it would. Or perhaps you're looking to change careers, or maybe you're re-entering the job market for fun after you got bored traveling the world with your dot-com millions.
Whatever the case finding a job can be daunting, especially right now. The economy is in the dumps and finding a job is more difficult than ever. And the more difficult something is, the more effort it takes, right? Well, maybe with some things, but job hunting needn't be one of them.
You need to use your web smarts to put the internet to work finding a job for you.
We can't promise that you'll be able to sit back and do nothing, but we can show you how to get notified the minute your dream job shows up on the web, helping you get the jump on the competition.
Here's our guide to passively job hunting with automated web searches.
== Scour the big job sites ==
Many job-related websites offer "personal job agents" that can help automate your job search. Tell these agents what type of job you're looking for and then the agent will send you an email whenever something crops up in your field. The quality of these so-called agents varies widely, with some sites offering little more than per-category RSS feeds while others charge a bit of money and may even claim to have an actual human doing the work for you.
That's all good and well, but let's back up a minute. Did we say RSS feed? Why yes, yes we did.
You know what you can do with an RSS feed? Just about anything.
== If This Then That ==
If This Then That or, more awkwardly, [http://ifttt.com/ Ifttt], is a handy little website that takes whatever data you give it and allows you to automate tasks related to it. Ifttt allows you to construct simple "programs" that take the format "if this is [true or false or matches something, etc], then do that".
Here's an example that's relevant to our purposes: grab a Craigslist job search RSS feed (at the bottom of category and search pages), pipe it into Ifttt and create a task that says "if a new underwater basket weaving job is posted then send me a text message." Now every time your dream job is posted to your local Craigslist you'll know about it without ever lifting a finger.
Don't want text messages? No problem, Ifttt.com can connect to dozens of services so you can notify yourself by email, phone call, Facebook message or even a tweet.
== Rinse and repeat ==
Now go back to step one and start scouring the big job sites like [http://www.monster.com/ monster.com] or [http://www.ihire.com/ ihire.com], but don't look for individual jobs, instead find search categories and look for RSS feeds (look for an RSS icon in your browser's URL bar or on the search results page). Not all job websites will offer RSS feeds, but many do. Gather up a bunch of job feeds and plug them into Ifttt.com to send yourself a series of alerts.
Now you'll always know about new jobs the minute they show up and you can get back to the finer parts of actually getting a job like polishing your resume and perfecting your interviewing skills.
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