Welcome to the Future of Job Seeking. Review on Monster

The strong marketing and brand image of Monster has made it the leading job board on the Internet. Originally known as the Monster Board, this popular job site is simply known by Monster. And because this site is so popular and so well-branded among recruiters and headhunters, any qualified candidate with a well-planned resume is sure to have at least one new job lead by posting his/her resume on Monster.

Becoming a Monster member and posting a resume is relatively easy. You are required to enter your basic demographic and educational data. Then you must input your resume. The disadvantage of using Monster is that you must have your resume in either text or HTML format. For those of us who use Word or WordPerfect to create our resumes, you will have to put in some additional effort to make your resume compatible with Monster's database. Of course, the advantage to this is that recruiters and headhunters can search through your resume easily and quickly to check out your qualifications.

Perhaps one of the best features of Monster is the ability to upload multiple resumes. For those of us who have multiple business interests or have multiple talents, it is very easy to upload resumes for different industries, companies and job functions. This function also allows you to limit what type of employers and recruiters view your resume so that you can target your resumes accordingly for better results.

Content-wise, Monster has some of the stronger content among job sites. Most notable are their message boards. These boards are moderated by experts, and allow participants to ask and answer questions related to all sorts of job-seeking issues, including resumes, interviewing and salary negotiation. While I do not find these boards as robust or as entertaining as the message boards on my favorite site, Vault.com, these boards are extremely useful for all job-seekers. In addition, Monster hosts chats with industry professionals at certain times, which allow for real-time interaction.

Monster also offers numerous, well-written articles on every job-seeking topic imaginable. In addition, they have interactive tools and games to assist help prepare a job-seeker for the interview process, or just to perform a general career assessment. Most of their content is geared towards mid-career individuals, though they are starting to target more free-lancers and Internet professionals. However, most of their content is pretty generic and anyone who has read these articles on other job sites will not be learning anything earth-shattering.

Monster is especially useful for Techies and Graphics Designers, as headhunters aggressively target these resumes. The downside is that your answering machine will always be full, even long after you ''de-activate'' your resume on Monster and have found a job. However, for most people, this inconvenience is worth the lucrative job opportunities often found by headhunters. Monster's job board also caters well to mid-career professionals, who are looking to move to the next level of their careers.

Free-lancers can try to get the maximum dollar value for their services by using Monster's Talent Auction. This unique model allows free-lancers to advertise their talents and allow companies to bid on these services. In the end, it is expected that the free-lancers will be able to extract the most compensation possible for their services.

The one group who should avoid Monster is college students. You are much better off going to JobDirect to find a job. Monster job posters tend to look for seasoned professionals. This is partly due to the high price of accessing Monster's database.

Overall, go to Monster to find a better job. If you are a qualified candidate, prepare to be annoyed that recruiters and headhunters are going to be calling you non-stop. However, you can take solace in the fact that you will probably be much better off in your new job