11 Ways to Tell Which Job is Right

You've created a great Web ré sumé . You've posted it on all the right sites. What happens next? You get offers! Here are Web sites that will help you figure out which job to take.

What's It Like to Work There?

You never know what it's like to work inside a company until you're on the inside. But to get a peek, check out Experience Online www.experienceonline.com . The site's researchers have spent thousands of hours interviewing insiders about jobs at 200 companies. Users subscribe to a career field or job skill advertising, consulting, marketing . In return, they get the scoop on everything from office hours to dress codes. A six-month subscription to Experience Online costs $34 per category.

1. The site's Snapshot area describes life inside a company. Go to Nestlé USA, and you learn that life is buttoned-down from Monday through Thursday - but casual on Friday, complete with "chocolate martinis on Hollywood Boulevard."

2. The Company Blueprint describes history, strategy, and culture. The site warns about Nestlé 's uptight style - but approves of its "diverse and genuine people."

3. Still want to work there? Then visit the How to Break In section and get the skinny on interviews: what the company may ask you, what you should ask in return.

4. There's even an Interview Cheat Sheet, with the straight dope on company financials and business milestones.

What's It Like to Live There?

Career moves often require geographic moves. HomeFair.com www.homefair.com offers tools to help you calculate the cost of moving, the cost of living, and the quality of life in various places.

5. The Moving Calculator helps you figure out how much it will cost to ship your worldly possessions to a particular city.

6. The Relocation Crime Lab compares crime rates in various locations.

7. The City Snapshots feature compares demographic, economic, and climate information for two cities of your choosing.

8. The Salary Calculator computes cost-of-living differences between hundreds of U.S. and international cities and tells you how much you'd need to make in your new city to maintain your current standard of living.

Will I Be Paid Enough?

You want to work at a great company. You want to live in a great place. But sooner or later, it all comes down to money.

9. The best place to explore your market value is JobSmart http://www.jobsmart.org/tools/salary/index.htm . The site links to more than 150 general and profession-specific salary surveys.

10. For information on salaries in the computer industry, try DataMasters www.datamasters.com .

11. If you're in accounting or finance, check out Experience on Demand www.experienceondemand.com .

The Accidental Job Seeker

Applicant: Jennifer Beardsley jbrdsly@aol.com , 30, Marketing Manager, Starbucks Coffee Co.

Web Tool: Career Central for MBAs http://www.mbacentral.com

Experience: "I'd done searching on the Net before, and I'd been keeping up with friends through my B-school alumni page. That's where I found a link to this site. One night I was bored, so I looked it up and typed in my profile. I was done in less than 20 minutes.

"I was working for a small outfit called the Seattle Chocolate Co. I wasn't really looking for a job. About six weeks later, I got an email that said, in effect, 'We've found you a match with Starbucks. Here's the job description. Do you want to send your ré sumé ?' The rest is history."

Education: "Privacy is a key issue. It's so easy for your current employer to bump into your ré sumé on one of the online employment services. That's one reason why I chose this site. It didn't require me to submit a full ré sumé ."

Online Veteran Seeks Position

Applicant: Rex Ballard rex.ballard@prudential.com , 42, Information Systems Architect, The Prudential

Web Tool: CareerMosaic www.careermosaic.com

Experience: "Using the Net to find a job was nothing new to me. Back in 1987, I learned about an opening at FedEx in Colorado Springs through a Usenet group. But a recent experience that I had on the Net was truly amazing. I'd been working for a while as an independent contractor, and I was between assignments. I discovered CareerMosaic through a banner ad. I clicked on the ad, and it asked if I wanted to post my ré sumé . I already had an electronic ré sumé , so after doing some reformatting, I posted it.

"Here's where it gets amazing: I posted my ré sumé on a Saturday night. By Monday afternoon, I'd received 21 phone calls - from companies like Netscape, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems. This would have taken months without the Web. I got three offers within a week."

Education: "The great thing about the Net is that you become visible to so many people at the same time. That's a problem too. To keep from getting swamped with calls for jobs you don't want, be very clear in your ré sumé . Also be clear about money. If you're looking for $100,000, make sure that companies understand your expectations. Otherwise, you'll end up fielding calls about $40,000 jobs."