Google Can Now Help You with Your Job Search

A new Google Search update lets job-seekers streamline their search process. Searches like 'jobs near me' are now designed to show relevant opportunities from multiple sites.

Previously, searches like that mostly brought up links to various recruitment sites that would have to be gone through one by one. The update works on both desktop and mobile. The jobs search tool filters out repeated posts of the same job onto different recruitment sites, and its algorithms use machine learning to sort the posts into categories, making the jobs easier to find.

It's currently only available in the US, but it may arrive in other countries in the future.

Google Can Now Help You with Your Job Search

Each result will include essential information like the job title, hours, posting date, and company name. It will also show how far the commute is for you, if the posting contains enough information for that.

There are a variety of filters for results, such as job category, title, and employment type. Job category basically refers to the industry or sector the job is in, and job title to the specific work you'd be doing. Employment type means you can select the length and frequency of the employment — such as part-time vs. full-time, seasonal or temporary vs. permanent, or an internship.

Once you set your search criteria, you can then get email updates whenever a new job is posted that fits. That way, you don't have to create a custom search the next time, as long as you're looking for the same sort of job you were before.

Google is working with job-search and networking sites like LinkedIn, Monster.com, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, WayUp, and DirectEmployers to create the service, as well as publishing information that will let other sites contribute to the search results. Facebook, possibly for their expertise in orchestrating connections, is also involved in the search design. If the update is successful and expanded to other countries, it will likely be adapted by which recruitment sites are most popular in each country.

This will help many job-seekers get a much clearer and quicker overview of the market.

Job searching can be extremely stressful. Sometimes it becomes as much a drain on one's energy as a job is, but without the benefit of a roof over one's head and (if you're lucky) a sense of meaning. So a tool like this to reduce the number of dead ends and scrolling through irrelevant results could alleviate anxiety for a lot of people.

If someone's already currently working already, in school, or otherwise busy, having a quicker way to find jobs will be especially helpful. For those who take a lot of shorter-term jobs, as well, this could make life (and making a living) a lot easier. It will save time for actually pursuing the best possible opportunities one can find, and then hopefully landing the jobs most suited to them rather than just what they happen to come across.