We have all had those patrons who are looking for work but whose computer skills are not quite where they need them to be. Just filling out an application or uploading a resumé can be frustrating for some. It can also be frustrating for Librarians when people need help at what I call the the POS (retail for “point of sale”), which means that they are seeking help at the tail end of the process, rather than from the beginning.
So, while I was surfing around, I found Jobscout. Created by a company called TRAIL, in conjunction with the California State Library, it was developed with library job seekers in mind. It’s free for individual users and best of all, it combines basic computer literacy skills with developing resumés and job searching in short, easy tutorials. For users who might need guidance at any point in their process, this site offers solid help.
Jobscout can walk users through the steps of using email or social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn during their job search. The resumé builder is simple, and unlike a lot of sites our patrons can find online, there is no charge to create, print, and save resumés (as a pdf). Other lessons include using Google or government websites to look for jobs, online safety, and blogging. All of the lessons are geared toward the job search, but users can still come away with skills they can utilize in other ways.
Of course, there are great websites for job searching and great websites for learning technology, but this site gets a thumbs-up for combining both. And, if you can get a few patrons to spend some time with it before they need immediate help in uploading a resume, I think they’ll find a value in it as well.