With the economy as challenging as it is these days, and with the need for many IECA members to find jobs, I wanted to focus this Director’s Message on the power of IECA’s Career Center. Our Career Center is a member benefit that is often underutilized by members, but it can be an invaluable resource for finding a new job or for locating a quality employee. And many improvements have been made to the Career Center lately. Let me take a moment to explain how you can make the most out of this great member benefit.
What is the Career Center?
For those of you unfamiliar with the benefit, IECA’s Career Center is a Web-based resource that connects job seekers with prospective employers in the erosion, sediment control, and stormwater industries. IECA’s Career Center is powered by career services leader JobTarget, and can be found at this Web-site address: www.jobtarget.com/home/index.cfm?site_id=732. Want an easier way to find it? Just go to IECA’s home page at www.ieca.org and click on the brown Career Center button on the top left hand side of the home page. Access to the Career Center is available to IECA members and nonmembers alike, but members always receive significant savings on job postings and resume purchases. Looking for a job? Anyone can post a resume for free, as IECA feels it is important to build the bank of resumes located in the Career Center so that it can be a truly valuable resource to connect potential employers with the talent they are seeking.
IECA’s Career Center distinguishes itself from other job boards in a number of ways. The features include:
- a highly targeted focus on employment opportunities in the erosion, sediment control, and stormwater industries;
- anonymous resume postings and job applications, enabling job candidates to stay connected to the employment market while maintaining full control over their confidential information;
- an advanced job alert system that notifies candidates of new opportunities matching their own pre-selected criteria; and
- access to industry-specific jobs-and top-quality candidates-often not seen on Monster, CareerBuilder, or HotJobs.
Environmental & Engineering Networks
As the television infomercials say “But wait-there’s more!” We’ve been working hard to improve the Career Center. Since many members are involved in the environmental and engineering fields, IECA’s Career Center recently joined what is called the Environmental & Engineering Networks to increase exposure of job placement ads purchased by IECA members and to grow the pool of jobs available for IECA members to explore.
JobTarget, which manages IECA’s Career Center, offers 85 networks covering a wide array of industries and specialties. The networks provide an easy, cost-effective way to get more eyes on job ads by posting a job using the new network products.
IECA members who purchase a network product will gain exposure on 14 environmental network sites, including the Society for Ecological Restoration, Green Careers Guide, International Association of Wildland Fire, and the National Association of Environmental Professionals, as well as 31 engineering network sites, including American Engineering Alliance, Design News, Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
The network product enables a single job posting on IECA’s site, plus secondary exposure for a job posting on either or both (depending on the product purchased) of the Environmental Network and/or the Engineering Network for an additional cost. Simply visit IECA’s Career Center and click on Products and Pricing. Then choose the new Network posting product. More eyes mean more opportunities to attract the right candidates to fill a job opening.
Getting the Word Out
Are you a friend yet of IECA’s Facebook page? If you are, you’ll see the new Careers tab. Click on this tab, and you’ll see a live stream of the newest job postings. In addition to Facebook exposure, we’ve been trying to figure out more ways to inform members about our Career Center and what it can do. Be sure to look in each issue of the online monthly E-Update newsletter, as there always is a feature in the bottom right-hand corner about the Career Center and the latest job postings. Be sure to save the Career Center Web page as one of your favorites, as you always can see live feeds of the most recent job postings. Just go to Career Center > View Jobs to see the latest feeds for postings in both the Environmental & Engineering Networks.
So what are you waiting for? If you are looking for employment or in search of a qualified employee, go to the IECA Career Center! Sign up for an account, explore a bit, and see what happens! I believe you will be pleased with what you find.
