A Guided Tour of MonsterTRAK

by Peter Vogt

MonsterTRAK Career Coach

Each day, more than 45,000 college students and recent graduates across the US visit MonsterTRAK to scour thousands of entry-level, part-time and internship opportunities targeted specifically to them. If you'd like to join them, take a look at how to get started with MonsterTRAK and how you'll benefit from using the site.

Step 1: Register

1. Go to the MonsterTRAK home page and click on Students/Alums.

2. Click the state where your college or university is located, then select your school. Enter your email address and fill out the registration form that follows. Once you enter your email address, you may be asked to type in a password before you can proceed to the registration screen. Contact your school's career center to get the password you need, or simply visit the career center's Web site.

3. Once you've completed the one-minute registration process, log on to the MonsterTRAK home page for your school.

Step 2: Search for Entry-Level Jobs and Internships

If you're like the typical MonsterTRAK user, your top priority is looking for an internship or entry-level job. To do that, simply click on Search near the top of your school's MonsterTRAK home page. You can search for opportunities by type, category, location, listing date, keywords or any combination thereof.

Be sure to post one or more copies of your resume as well, so MonsterTRAK's employers can consider you for available opportunities. After you click on the Resumes tab near the top of the screen, you can either upload your existing resume from a word-processing program or create one using MonsterTRAK's text editor.

You'll also want to use MonsterTRAK's newest -- and perhaps most powerful -- tool: Job Search Agents. A Job Search Agent essentially allows you to monitor MonsterTRAK 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whenever your agent finds a matching job or an internship, you'll receive an email with a link to that particular opportunity. You can create up to eight Job Search Agents and choose to be emailed daily, weekly or monthly.

Step 3: Tap MonsterTRAK's Career Development Resources

Each week, your school's MonsterTRAK home page offers an article written by me, the MonsterTRAK Career Coach, that addresses the unique career-related concerns of college students and recent grads. You can also access previous articles by visiting MonsterTRAK's archives.

Moreover, clicking the Resources tab near the top of the screen will reveal even more tools to guide your career development activities, including:

• MonsterTRAK's Career Planning for College Students message board, where you can trade ideas with your peers and get individualized career advice from me, MonsterTRAK Career Coach Peter Vogt.




• Job Search Tips, which provides tips from the experts and teaches you how to look, act, write and present yourself like a pro.




• MonsterTRAK's Major-to-Career Converter, which gives you an idea of where your college major might take you in the world of work. Simply pick your current or potential major from the drop-down menu and check out the list of associated career possibilities.




• MonsterTRAK's Resume Center, which will teach you how to present yourself effectively on paper so your resume will land in the "to interview" pile.




• MonsterTRAK's Salary Center, which will give you a sense of the money you can expect to make in your future career.

© 2008 MonsterTRAK