Top 5 Suprisingly Underutilized Job Search Engines

There are large job search engines like the popular sites Monster and CareerBuilder. And there are countless niche job boards for every industry and functional area (if you haven't seen Eric Shannon's Top 100 Niche Job Search Websites list, don't miss out any longer on this great resource).

But there are also some powerful job search sites out there that many job seekers either don't know about or simply aren't effectively leveraging in their job search efforts. Here are the top 5 surprisingly underutilized job search engines:

1. Indeed.com: Indeed is a metasearch engine that collects job listings from thousands of job boards, newspapers, associations, and company career pages. Job seekers do not apply for jobs through Indeed. Instead, they receive the listing where the job is posted. They then go to the corresponding site to apply. Duplicate job listings are filtered out, leaving behind one comprehensive list of opportunities. Overall, this saves job seekers time and energy they can reinvest in applying to more opportunities.
2. SimplyHired.com: SimplyHired is another metasearch engine that aggregates job listings from thousands of job boards, newspaper and classified listings, associations, social networks, content sites, and company career sites. It then distributes those jobs on SimplyHired.com and its social network, media content, blog and niche website partners.
3. LinkUp.com: LinkUp is the new and unique job search engine that only lists jobs taken directly from company websites. These postings are considered "hidden jobs" because they are typically unadvertised outside of company websites and can be difficult to find if you don't know which ones to check.
4. LinkedIn.com: LinkedIn is the leading professional networking site helping professionals across industries connect for career and business success. LinkedIn offers its own exclusive job board for job seekers and a comprehensive company directory. It also allows its members to post jobs in the member-generated LinkedIn networking groups.
5. Google.com: Google is the leading search engine on the web and is a great place to do a quick job search query if you're having challenges finding your target jobs and employers. There are many niche job sites and company career pages that a quick Google search will uncover that might otherwise have been missed. You can also use Google Alerts to get an update any time a new search result is posted online that meets your query. This can be a great way to find new opportunities the moment they go live online.