If you're not already a web-based tool to store where you're at in which applications, start right away. Some people use Google Docs, others use http://happyjob

If you're not already a web-based tool to store where you're at in which applications, start right away. Some people use Google Docs, others use http://happyjobsearch.com/ http://happyjobsearch.com/ (free) and some like http://www.jibberjobber.com/ http://www.jibberjobber.com/ (freemium). We built http://linkup.com http://linkup.com for that very reason that people prefer and get better results applying straight to company's own websites. If you'd like to discuss it more, email me at eric@linkup.com. That biggest point that I wanted to talk about is "Have I already applied for this listing" problem. When sites talk about having 9M+ job openings in the US, that's because they show the same job opening multiple times. They have algorithms that take a job title, break it into chunks, and then remerge them in multiple methods. A good test is Microsoft - see how many jobs whatever site you're using has for openings at Microsoft - at any time Microsoft has around 2k openings, so if you see some multiple of that then something fishy is afoot. Bluntly, it is a pain in the ass because the sites make money by having a huge number of repeat jobseekers continually visiting the site - who think that the site is 100% doing everything in the jobseekers best interest. But when you introduce a pay-per-post or pay-per-click model into the mix, delivering the best, purest jobs becomes contradictory to making a short-term profit. (Think early Excite.com vs Google.com)