Finding employment, contract work,
employees or contractors on the Internet
Finding Work and Finding Skilled People on the Internet
The right hand menu guides you through this cluster
From very few to a multitude - recent months have seen an
explosion of Web sites that offer to find work for job-hunters, to match
specialist skills to contract work opportunities, to find good candidates for
employers looking for recruits. Is there any value in such schemes? How do they
work? Can anyone join? Are they limited to the USA or North America or can
people in Europe, Asia and other regions get value from such programmes? What
are the risks?
The main successes can be expected to be in conventional
employment - where the employer and the recruit are near enough geographically
to make this possible. However, some employers - and some companies looking to
contract out work - are now prepared to (and in some cases keen to) hire on a
teleworking or telecommuting basis. Some are prepared to hire across country
boundaries.
Below are the links and commentaries on all the programmes we
have looked at to date.
Work, employment and telecommuting sites
6FigureJobs
Job search website for professionals. Individuals can post resumes (CVs) and
search for free. Employers pay a fee to post vacancies charged for searching the
CVs. The database allows for countries other than USA but the overwhelming
majority of vacancies appear to be US-based. There may be telework jobs in there
but no way to tell. It would be useful for the site to give some kind of
indications of the numbers of vacancies by category, so as to avoid making
searches which yield no vancancies.
ants.com
ants.com calls itself "Your freelance marketplace". The site displays
listings of contract projects submitted by employers, to which contractors can
respond. Responses are also displayed online so the introduction becomes a kind
of cost/quality auction. Number of offers currently small
Association pour la Promotion
des Nouvelles Technologies Administratives
The site offers a "free subscription" but this only applies to being
on the mailing list for a newsletter. They ask for 100 French Francs per annum
for a CV listing on their website; 500 Francs to be informed of invitations to
tender; or 1000 Francs to add a link to your website. When checked in June 2000
there appeared to be no "offers of employment" and very few CVs, also
no information about the number of visitors to the site. There are many places
on the web where you can place a CV free of charge and also get links to your
site free of charge. The "article of the month" in January 2000 was a
report of an event held in June 1966 - we understand that it was published at
APNTA site without the permission of the author. One further article has been
added since (as at June 2000)Comments welcome please from anyone who knows more
about this site - particularly anyone who has paid to subscribe to any of the
chargeable services?
BizzAdvice
Advice service for small firms and start-ups. You can register to give advice or
to get advice. There is a charging system. When visited on 14 June 2000 the
example "public questions" had no content and in the areas viewed no
advisers had as yet handled any questions. There are also some forums, but these
include a fair proportion of advertising stuff.
careers.wsj.com
Backed by the Wall Street Journal, a site for "executive, managerial and
professional jobs". Locations are USA (each state) plus a sing
"International" category. There are linked "global partners"
in UK, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden. There is no reference to
teleworking/telecommuting.
ClickWork (Netherlands)
Job search and recruitment service in the Netherlands (in Dutch).
DN.Jobb - jobsearch in Sweden
Job search and recruitments site in Sweden (in Swedish).
eFreelancers
Newly launched, the site announces "going live on 3 April". UK based
and straplined as "UK freelance professionals". Companies are expected
to pay a "tender fee" of £49.95 (about „ or $ 80) to post their
projects. Users can also browse the directory of freelancers and can email them
directly.
elance
Site for matching "buyers and sellers of services", or freelance
contracting work. Buyers post RFPs (Request for Project), Sellers can respond to
these or post "Fixed Price Services". The bids appear to be on public
view, leading to potential price warring. Oddly, the site is still in
"beta" mode seven months after the "public launch of full
version" (August 1999).
Employment911
Employment finding and recruitment site - USA only (registration requires USA
State). Provides job search across multiple job sites. No mention of teleworking,
telecommuting and a recent search found no jobs with the key words telework,
telecommute, telecommuting. With these "multi-search" types of sites
it can be very difficult to tell which of the jobs are still actively open. This
one says "Search 3 million jobs"!
Eoffice
USA-based service that handles contractual, invoicing, collection and tax
reporting for freelance contractors. Now linked with FreeAgent.com to provide a
linked contract work search facility.
eportfolio
A facility for independent (freelance) workers to present a detailed
"portfolio" via the "FreeAgent" website.
fish4jobs uk
Job search and recruitment service for UK. Specify location by region or by
county (or "any"), search on job title or "category"
(meaning sector). No mention of telework/telecommuting. A user has pointed out
that one can use 'Work from Home' as a search term, but this actually yields any
job that has the term "home" in its description.
FreeAgent.com
Online service for "freelancers, consultants and independent
contractors". No charge to individuals. Includes profile online, project
search. When searched (January 2000), "executive and strategy" yielded
zero, "technology" yielded 3290 projects, Internet/new media yielded
25. USA focus, but some projects stated "anywhere" as the location.
Freelancers.net
UK based site at which freelancers (self employed specialists) can create a
profile of their skills, plus a portfolio showing work completed, and can
specifiy what types of contracts they are looking for (eg telecommute).
Companies looking for a contractor can post information about projects and can
search for contractors. The search is skills based and the skills are mainly ICT
product skills with a strong emphasis on web-related work. There doesn't appear
to be a search facility but the jobs can be listed by category. No evidence of
the success rate.
FreetimeJobs.com
The idea at this site is that you have "a few hours to spare" and
would like to earn extra money. You have to register to view the jobs database,
then you bid for jobs selected from a single long list. Jobs are displayed ten
at a time, in no apparent order (perhaps order of submission?). The registration
lists most countries. A fair proportion of the jobs listed are really
"business opportunities". There appears to be no follow through to
find out what happened once an advertiser and a freetimer get together? We'd
like to hear from anyone who has had paid work (as opposed to business
opportunities) through this service please!
gazeta -
jobsearch poland
Job search and recruitment service. In Polish. Comments sought please from
Polish speakers!
HEA Home Jobs Database
A job finding service for home based employment. Claims that "About 8 out
of every 10 people that join HEA find home employment". Entry cost to jobs
database is $10. There are other services and a $30 "3-service deal" -
job placement service, resume forwarding service and access to job database for
a year. Focus is USA.
Herbalife International
A multi-level marketing organisation (like Amway), that signs up freelance
distributors to sell its range of dietary and health food products.
Home Employment Agency
UK based. Aims to "bring together" employers and home based workers.
Employers and potential employees can complete online forms at no charge. Number
of posts listed at 30 March 2000 was small. A message said the site is
temporarily inactive, but new job continue to be posted. The owners tell us a
new site will be opened in May 2000.
Home-Business-Centre
New UK site (Summer 2000) with some views and suggestions about home-based
working plus a jobs page that didn't (as at 6 June 2000) have any actual job
advertisements. Indeed there are several sections of the site that as yet are
fairly content-free.
Home2Work.com
USA-based site where job-hunters and employers can post advertisements. One
attractive feature is that the types of "classified ads" are clearly
categorised and the numbers of ads in each category is shown. However this may
need re-thinking if the volume of postings becomes large. There are categories
for "Job Listings - Telecommute Full Time/Contract Nationwide" (for
USA) but not one for global telecommuters. At 16 June 2000 thess sections listed
36 postings, but some of the "jobs" were actually requests from job
seekers.
Homeworking.com
A free resource to help people wanting to work at home and/or obtain jobs of any
kind. Includes classified advertisements with a small number of "Jobs
offered". There was a Job Search facility but this now seems to have been
replaced by links to other services.
InnoVisions Canada Jobs Bank
Linked to a Telework consultancy that hosts the Canadian Telework Association,
this site provides "job search", resume (CV) facilities and a
recruitment facility. Although this is so closely linked with telework
activists, the first option in the jobs search is "Location", and all
the jobs we searched had a particular "location" tag. Employers are
urged to include the term "telework" in job descriptions, but a search
produced no jobs with that as a keyword.
Internet Home
Employment
This site presents a long and busy home page, with links to a job search sie (jobvertise.com)
and links to many collections of job advertisements - all the ones we checked
were USA-oriented. However the main offer at the site itself is to buy an
"electronic book" called "Legitimate Home Employment" at
$19.99. A second offer is to submit your resume (CV) to "over 500 job banks
and recruiters", again at $19.99. The site's opening line says "This
is not a scam or get rich quick programme", but the "free
download" sample links yields a "Not Found". We'd like to hear
from anyone who has bought the book or the resume service - please use the
"add your comments" link.
Job Cafe
A site offering to match people to job opportunities. Linked with the StepStone
group. There is an open jobs database that can be searched. Many of the jobs
appear to have been on the database for a long time, so there may not be a purge
process? There is a facility to list only "recently posted" jobs. No
mention of teleworking? All in Italian. Comments welcome from users please.
Job Options (also known as
deja.com Career Center)
Users can search for job advertisements, search for an employer, post a resume
(CV). Also "career tools" that are strongly USA-centric. Jobs mainly
USA - there was an "international" section but with (apparently) few
jobs when we looked in February 2000. In March this section seemed to have
disappeared.
Jobpilot (UK)
A standard site that lists and searches job advertisements and enables job
seekers to upload CVs. Jobs are classified as "permanent", "entry
position" or "freelance contract", locations as "UK",
"Euope" or "Worldwide". Ads can be posted and searched in
different languages, which is an unusual and attractive approach to
internationalisation. No mention of teleworking or off site working.
JobServe (UK)
A site focused on "IT vacancies in the UK", but with 10% of its
vacancies outside UK. Job seekers can search for contract work or
"permanent" employment and can specify the recency of postings, for
example "within 5 working days". The search terms "home",
"telework", "off site" may produce teleworkable jobs, but
with no specific provision for teleworking. You may also provide a CV (resume)
that will be circulated to recruitment agencies. There is also a directory of
recruitment agencies. Employers are asked to "call the sales team".
Jobvertise
This system provides a resource through which any website owner can add a
"jobs page" to their website, as well as providing a fairly typical
job search facility direct to users. Four of the first five "jobs"
found when browsing the "most recent 100" were actually commission
based or run-your-own-business types of jobs.
karriere direckt
A job search and recruitment site in Germany (in German). At March 2000 it
reported 1702 employment offers and 958 job seekers - an unusual postive ratio
of jobs to seekers. Comments from users sought please!
Kasamba!
A question-answering service. Visitors post a question, "experts"
answer the question and may offer their services for a fee, which they
determine. Anyone may register as an "expert". The idea is that
clients will search for the expert they need and start a dialogue leading to
chargeable work. Lost of experts have signed up, there appears to be no way to
know how many clients have appeared.
KeyChange
Outsourcing Register (Australia)
A facility in which contractors can enter a personal profile that can be
searched by prospective clients. The search is based on keywords entered into
fields, would be greatly improved by adding some self-declarative information
about the database contents, eg how many people there are in some obvious
categories. Keyword search is not an effective way to search for
skills/experience.
NuAspect.Com
A facility for contracting out elements of software development to programmers
through NuAspect as an intermediary. There is a membership fee (company or
programmer $20, consultant $200 - the consultant acts as a project manager
should the customer need this). At March 2000 the introductory free offer was
still open. There were 207 programmers registered for work.
OfficeTech
A web based "virtual staffing" service offering to match employers
with teleworkers on a contract or employee recruitment basis. Teleworkers can
register without paying any fees or subscriptions, employers are charged a
finders fee for successful introductions. Teleworkers "world wide" are
invited to register. When matched to an opportunity the teleworker has to
negotiate terms with the employing company direct. OfficeTech charges the
employer an introduction fee. The specialisation listed for teleworkers are a
mix of office/clerical tasks and some rather generalised professional tasks such
as "Information Technology" and "Web design and
development".
OutSource2000
The main offer here is a Home Workers Forum, entry cost $29 for six months.
Members can search jobs databases, get assistance with creating resumes (CVs).
Instead of the subscription you can buy $50 of their software. Much of the
software is of the kind widely promoted through "Get rich" schemes. In
the sample jobs shown at the site many are really home based businesses not
employment or contract work.
PanEris
The blurb here says "PanEris is home to a collective of web developers
working together as a virtual corporation." Though its not overtly clear
there appears to be an invitation to join. The site seems to be a working
demonstration of the team's capabilities. Recently (February 2000 moved to a new
domain, many of the "old site" pages hadn't changed since 1998 when
last visited in January 2000. There is a collection of "message
boards" at the site, but difficult to understand the connection between the
message boards and the stated purpose of the site as a whole. The private
discussions of the team appear entangled with public discussions, and it appears
that anyone can join. Interesting . . . . for example, there is an apparently
open discussion of "Sales Leads", including potential customers' phone
numbers. Comments from someone connected to the Paneris "community"
would be welcome please!
Regulus Consulting
A USA-based company providing a range of outsourcing services on a teleworking
and non-telework basis, plus consulting and services for companies adopting
telework methods. There is a "Careers" section that describes the
range of types of work available through Regulus and example profiles of current
opportunities. Projects may include "full-time telework, on-site work or
travel".
Smart
Eric .com
A UK based website for self-employed professionals and freelances, mainly
working from home. Freelancers can add their details to a CVs database, which
prospective customerc can search. We found site response rather slow, but this
may have been a transient routeing problem. There are pages with advice for
self-employed start ups and marketing, plus a discussion forum (see separate
entry).
smarterwork.com
A UK-based commercial "finding work" site that is focused on contract
work and where the mechanism actively favours a teleworking approach. The site
maintains a register of "experts" able to work in particular types of
projects, and enables "clients" to post project details against which
experts can bid. A list of current projects with current lowest bid appears on
the public site, registered experts get more detail. Project approval, payments
and resolution of disagreement are handled by the service. Uniquely, so far as
we have observed, the "experts" are screened through an online testing
mechanism before being allowed to bid for projects. Of two tests taken our
tester failed one but passed the other (you do get another chance and passed at
second try!). There are currently (March 2000) five categories of projects - Net
Research, Document Production, Web Build Support, Graphic Design, Writing &
Editing.
StepStone
This review based on StepStone's UK service. Services appear to vary between
countries, see for example Jobs Cafe in Italy, which has a very different
interface and apparently a different approach. Other countries appear to run the
same model as in the UK. Job seekers can register free of charge. The search
includes local country and other European posts. Search response appears to be
slow? Employers pay to advertise posts, and can include links to their own
sites. Many advertisers are recruitment agencies. The charging rates are not
disclosed at the site? No mention of telework or temporary/contract posts, this
is an online facility for conventional recruitment. At March 2000 the UK site
reported 15000 UK vacancies and 77000 "in Europe", across a wide range
of sectors, with 60,000 job seekers' profiles.
Telecommute
Magazine
Once you get past the big graphic that is the home page, and worked out that you
click on the image to get into the site, there are lots of features, including a
forum and a links page, plus a facility for loading your profile and a job
search facility, which links to HeadHunter.net, JobBank USA and
Workaholics4Hire.com.
Telecommuting Jobs
Job seekers can search a database of jobs. The job description is written
directly by the job advertiser, enabling direct contract. Most of the
"jobs" we examined appear to be freelance contracts rather than
employment, and usually at fairly low (or undisclosed) pay rates. The job lists
generally show only a one or two word title so you have to look at many to see
whether they are suitable for you. Employers almost all USA based. At 13 March
2000 there was a confusing advertisement on the home pagefrom IHA (The
Independent Homeworkers Alliance) - it looks like the site's search facility!
TeleMart
Website of a European project about matching employers to teleworkers.
Confidence is not helped by the fact that (a) the "News" page at
January 2000 promised that Telemart "will be opening for business in
November 1998." and (b) key links such as the "Teleworkers Forum"
don't work. This was still the case in March 2000. If you cannot move from the
home page. look for the button to the bottom right of the page (hidden in a
narrow window).
TeleTask
(Australia) Skills Register
A skills register in which teleworkers and other freelancers can enter a
profile, which can then be searched for by prospective employers or clients. The
client search facility is entirely keyword based and would be much improved by
the addition of some database summary information and an alternative,
categorised search option.
Telework Unlimited
Telework Unlimited provides a free of charge service in which teleworkers can
post their offers of skills and employers can post offers of work. The offers of
work are relatively few in number but some appear to be both genuine and
current. Most offers are in German. The site owners also undertake telework
related projects. Alhough most menu items are in both English and German, most
of the detailed content is in German only.
The Real Deal on
Telecommuting
The site promotes a "How to" guide to getting work as a teleworker,
priced at $7.00 by email, $9.00 hard copy.
TWS - Teleworkers
Web Site (UK)
A directory of UK teleworkers. Individuals can add their profile, which is then
listed by area (UK county) and by category of their specialism. The site was
updated at the end of 1999, removing existing entries and requiring teleworkers
to resubmit.
Work-At-Home-Dot.Com
A no-charge site with many links to information and services related to
opportunities for home based businesses. USA focused. Many of the links are to
"get paid to surf" or "make money working at home" types of
"opportunities".
Workaholics4hire.com
A jobs database. USA oriented. In order to search you are required to complete a
profile and subscribe to an email newsletter. There are some added value
services for employers, and a discussion forum.
Zeus: Teleworking in Greece
In addition to a links page and some explanations of teleworking, the site
invites visitors to "join the Greek Teleworking Network", which
appears to be part of the Telemart programme, but the Telemart programme itself
appears to be defunct. Further comments welcome please?
(from www.eto.org.uk) | 
