Are you a college student or recent graduate who recently stumbled across College Monster? If so – you may be questioning whether it can help you land your first job after graduation.
This article will help point you in the right direction by revealing everything you need to know about the company before you invest your energy and time into using their service.
What is College Monster?
College Monster was created by Monster – the online job board.
Monster is one of the largest and most successful online job boards, helping millions of individual’s land jobs. Considering the site caters to a wide audience, College Monster was built as a sub site with the purpose of serving only college students and graduates. On the website, you will find career resources, interview tips, resume builders, and best of all – entry level positions that are perfect for the college level.
Alongside entry-level positions, you can also use College Monster to look for internships, interact with the social community, discover local recruitment fairs, and find great advice to kick start your post-college career.
Who is using it?
College Monster is used by over a million entry-level professionals, students, and recent grads all over the US.
As far as employers – there is no exact number, considering employers actually do not use College Monster to post their employment listings. Instead, employers use the main website, Monster and from there College Monster sorts through the best entry-level positions, before disclosing those positions on its website.
How does it work?
Using College Monster is quick and straightforward. The site is well organized, meaning you can easily find whatever you desire – whether that be career tips, interview tips, or access to the best lists for entry-level positions.
Simply visit the website and you will be presented with tons of tabs full of information.
Depending on your needs, you can click around and read up on the many free resources available. If you need help building a kick ass resume or rocking your next interview – use the resume and interview tab. If you’ve recently been hired – use the hired 101 tab for information that will help you make the best out of your new position. There’s quite a lot of free information offered so make sure to take your time and search through the website.
After you’ve analyzed and read up on the career tips, it’s time to cut to the chase and start looking for the entry-level positions.
Fortunately, College Monster makes this quite easy and efficient. Simply click the entry level jobs tab and from there you will be redirected to a page asking you to sign up. If you’re already registered with Monster – you won’t have to sign up. All you have to do is reenter your Monster login information and you will get full access to the list of entry-level jobs.
Keep in mind, if you do not have an account with Monster – you will have to sign up before you can apply to the entry-level positions. Although registering for sites can be a hassle – College Monster’s registration process is quick and easy, and only takes a few seconds to complete.
After you’ve registered, search through Monster’s database of jobs by keyword, skill, location, or job title.
The process is illustrated below:
As you can see from the screenshot above, the results generated by your search only include internships or jobs that are appropriate for the college level. This is a nice touch, considering it saves you a lot of time from having to look through irrelevant job postings.
Now it’s time to go through the database of jobs and read up on the job descriptions. The site informs you of the employer, time posted, location, and job description. After you’re done reading through the list of jobs and found a possible fit – it’s time to apply.
Applying for jobs through College Monster is similar to every other job board out there.
You’ll be asked to sign up (if you haven’t done so already) and submit your information, cover letter, and resume. After you do, you can then apply directly through College Monster for most of the positions available. Some positions, however, may require you to apply on the employer’s website.
What jobs are offered?
Considering College Monster draws entry-level positions from Monster’s large database of jobs, the website has entry-level positions from all different industries and facilities. Whether you’re interested in a career in investment banking or teaching – you’re bound to find something that meets your unique skill set.
Reviews/Successes/Failures
When looking through the reviews below, keep in mind the reviews are for Monster and not College Monster (you’ll be hard pressed to find any reviews about College Monster). Although Monster and College Monster are somewhat different – the same reviews still hold because all jobs from College Monster are pulled through Monster’s search engine.
Although the company has done a great job at creating valuable resources for college students and graduates, some aspects of the site are quite annoying and frustrating.
The 3 Major Issues with College Monster…
Cluttered pages – I was quite overwhelmed after visiting the website for the first few times. It was a lot to take in – the site has numerous tabs full of information. Although this is a plus, it’s quite annoying and frustrating having to navigate through all the available pieces of information. Worst yet – the severe clutter on the pages may actually keep you from finding valuable pieces of content.
Increased likelihood of finding scams– Keep in mind the jobs are pulled from Monster’s database, meaning there’s a greater chance of you getting scammed through an inaccurate posting. Many reviewers have stated that quite a few scam jobs are posted on Monster.
Not very user-friendly – The site could be improved in a lot of different aspects. For one, the search bar for entry level positions could include a greater number of advanced search options. Also – removing the mandatory sign up feature would be a nice touch – it’s frustrating having to sign up for yet another service before you can use it.
Despite the issues above, College Monster is a valuable resource for the following reasons:
1. Saves you time. The beauty of College Monster is it saves you from having to go through each and every job posting on Monster. Instead – it does that for you and only presents to you those jobs or internships that are best suited for your skill level. This is great, considering it saves you a bunch of time and energy.
2. Caters to every type of college student. From those interested in government and non-profits to those wanting to change the world and join a start up – you’ll find a little bit of everything on College Monster.
3. Invaluable pieces of content. The site is full of great resources and pieces of content. It will show you how to write an awesome cover letter, build a great resume, and also kick ass at your next interview. The resource guides are comprehensive and full of gems.
Would I Recommend College Monster?
If you’re in need of resources to help kick start your post-college career, I highly recommend you read the guides and tips listed on College Monster. For those of you who want to land jobs or internships, College Monster is also a great resource for you.
Considering Monster is one of the largest job boards available, you’ll surely find tons of jobs and internships that suit your skill set. The site attracts a variety of different employers, meaning you are exposed to greater variety in job postings (you won’t be bored with just accounting positions anymore).
Although the site has some kinks with respect to navigation and functionality – it’s a resource that cannot be ignored for those leaving their college doors and entering the real world.
Additional job sites to check out:
USA Jobs (government jobs)
If anyone has used AfterCollege before, feel free to tell us your experience within the comments section!
Very informative article for people right out of college! I remember getting out of school and wondering.. “what now”.. I know I used monster a few times to land a few insignificant jobs… But it also was the gateway for the career im in now! I’m truly grateful for that site and I hope many ex students fresh out come by this post!
Great!
Will continue to use if one day needed.;)
I would think that as the site keeps picking up the momentum, they will tweak it and make it even better. The flagship site by monster has made its way as one of the tops, so I’m sure this site will also gain ground.
Excellent idea of them to create and thanks for the informed update.
Wendy,
Having read other articles on your site previously, once again you presented such a thorough but also honest assessment of the subject – in this case the college monster job board.
On the one hand the people in charge of the original Monster site, in creating this site, have tried to do an invaluable service for college students in their task at finding a job either while still in school, or just having graduated. It’s great that this board was designated to be used by those specific group of people versus say just anyone.
Conversely as it still is “Monster” which I’ve found in the past to be just too daunting in everything seen at the original site, one could still experience the same thing on the new board.
There’s just so much “stuff” present on the entire board. You called it rightfully “clutter”! It feels almost impersonal in all that would be required to register, locate specific jobs within your field of interest and provide all the relevant detail to a prospective employer about yourself, (resume, job history, references, etc). At the same time potentially tens of thousands of college grad students would be trying to do the same thing.
Plus as you mentioned there still is the opportunity for scams to take place at this site from fraud individuals offering jobs that don’t exist. Monster probably does not have the staffing available to prevent these types of bogus things from occurring and probably daily.
While Monster has always tried to do right by those seeking job opportunities, for me personally I would not put them at the top of my list for such sites. It’s just much too large with everything that is present at the site.
Thank you for your review, Wendy!
Jeff
Hi Wendy, you have put up a very nice, easy to navigate, well organized site. I have two daughters that have recently graduated college and your referral to the after college monster site has already netted them multiple interviews.
This is a God send as they have either has zero interviews or interviews for jobs that are, let’s say underpaid and not desirable. After signing up with monster the quality of job opportunities is wide open.
Thank you and Hod bless you for your dedication to struggling college grads.
This review is too much valuable for new graduates. Monsters is one of the greatest graduate helping sites. Finding the right job opportunity for a fresh graduate is a terrible challenge. I personally felt the absence of such a guidance when I finish civil engineering licence. Your site and particularly this article is very useful that I suggest to everyone related.
Thank you.
I can remember using Monster years ago when I graduated from high school while searching for a part-time job while in college. I used it many times over the next few years for various jobs. Fast forward a number of years and I tried it again about 2 years ago and had a completely different experience than what i remember from using it way back when. It seems like the spam is bad and the jobs are already filled. I am not sure if it is just me but while I think Monster is still a good resource, it isn’t what it once was…