D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time consuming and inefficient. Search agents like CareerBuilder's reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. There is no career counseling implicit in all of this.
Some sites design their agents to entice job hunters to return.
Plugged-in job hunters can also tap professional associations for a similar service. The Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., for example, sends out weekly E-mails about openings across the country. Webgrrls International has 107 chapters, most of which have electronic mailing lists where members post job leads. Even those who aren't hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep tabs on the demand for their line of work or gather fodder on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise.