When I started JibberJobber I called it a career management tool. From that point on I was quite curious to know what other major sites would offer to job seekers and career managers, specifically curious when they called it a “career toolbox.”
I recently stumbled into AOL’s career page – while they don’t call it a career toolbox it was interesting to see what tools they (a) include and (b) point to. Here’s what I found (at jobs.aol.com):
- Salary Calculator: I don’t have very good experiences with salary calculators… because when I used the info to do salary negotiations the response I got back from my bosses was that those numbers were skewed to big cities, or big companies, or something like that, and completely unrealistic for our situation. Basically they were telling me to not expect the higher numbers I was seeing in those calculators. This one is powered by PayScale (which is Salary.com’s main competitor, I think).
- Cost of Living Calculator: Also powered by PayScale, I do like this concept as it helps you understand the differences from where you live now to where you think you want to move. Can be quite overwhelming for someone moving from podunk, USA to an expensive city (like Boston or NYC).
- Career Features, Retirement Jobs: All job search info is powered by CareerBuilder, which became the largest job board in the US (surpassing Monster a couple of years ago, IIRC). This link goes to PrimeCB.com, which is CareerBuilder’s tool for Baby Boomers.
- Career Features, Skills Training: This also goes to a CareerBuilder site called CareerBuilderInstitute. I hadn’t seen this before but it looks like there are videos and training courses to brush up skills, get certifications, etc. Some are free, I’m guessing some are not.
- Online Education, Go Back to School: This goes directly to the University of Phoenix website… Interestingly there isn’t anything in the link that indicates it is coming from CareerBuilder… I would think they (Phoenix AND CareerBuilder) would want to know how many clicks turn into paying students.
- Online Education, Get Your Degree Online: This goes to AOL’s “online campus,” which is sponsored by the University of Phoenix. Weird that the link above goes straight to Phoenix’s website where this goes to an AOL domain with info and content and features by the University of Phoenix.
- Career Fairs, Find a Career Fair Near You: Powered by CareerBuilder also – there are a lot of resources here for career fairs – whether you want to attend or you are an employer and you want to pay lots of moola to buy a booth. Interestingly, there are only 2 upcoming career fairs listed.
- Create a Resume: Powered by Emurse, which was acquired by AOL in 2008. Go Emurse!!
- Resume Management: Goes to the front page of Emurse.com. The front page looks almost identical to what you see in #8 above.
Looks like there is a lot missing, if I wanted a job search toolbox. They lean heavily on CareerBuilder – luckily CareerBuilder has a pretty comprehensive suite (for a job board company). Cool that they bring in Emurse, but I’d think that AOL would tap into a lot of other sources to have a fuller offering.
