This link to life after college features the complete text of a typical post-school how to get a job advice book. Although other parts of the site might warrant a visit, including a RealAudio section on such things as Mastering the Interview and Successful Job Offer Negotiations, the book itself is the main attraction. The chapters of College Grad Job Hunter offer good, albeit basic advice on everything from writing cover letters and resumes to not screwing up an interview. But speaking as a former hirer, remember that the hard-sell techniques the author swears by might only annoy many prospective bosses. Its a good start, if you take it with a grain of salt. - Dorrit Tulane Walsh
The Idea List is a Yahoo!-esque directory of non-profit agencies in 110 countries around the world, and resources (online and otherwise) of use to those agencies. The graphics are slick, the mission is noble, and the information is useful. One especially nice feature is that a non-profit agency needn't have a Web site in order to list detailed information about its services, volunteer opportunities, internships, job openings, upcoming events, and publications. Idea List is also creating a global directory of free public-access points to the Internet. And be sure to read about Action Without Borders, scheduled for October 97. You can search the directory by organization (name, location, or mission), materials and publications, services and programs, volunteer opportunities, events, job opportunities, and internship opportunities. - Gary Barker
Is your life ruled by aesthetics? Do you read extremely expensive magazines about architecture and furniture design? Have you ever cared enough about fashion to attend one of the big fashion shows in New York, Paris, or Milan? Can you read the sentence "Irrespective of the different functions they are expected to perform, we often automatically associate the shape and concept of a garment with those of a piece of furniture or home design product" without snorting? Are you so very wealthy that aesthetics are all you have left to care about, because every other problem in your life has been resolved? Abitare is a bilingual Italian magazine, and it's probably as attractive as it is shallow and haughty. - Gary Barker
Monster Board uses Frames and requires a graphical, Java-compliant browser. If you don't have cutting-edge hardware and software, forget it. That's sad, because this is a resource for people seeking employment, and the jobless don't usually have access to the cutting edge. In designing its Web site this way, the Monster Board excludes literally millions of job seekers. This is, however, the best of job-related sites on the Web, featuring opportunities and resources up the ying-yang. There's way too much to describe in this limited space. If you are looking for a job or have a job opening, this site will be very useful to you. - Gary Barker
I tried looking at this site with both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer and still had a lot of problems getting it to function properly. I think the problems I experienced were the fault of dietetics.com, but I can't prove that, so I won't make a big deal out of it. This site seeks to draw dietitians to the Internet by providing them with an online infrastructure through which they can sell their products and services. Although the Dietetics Online group is available only through AOL, members are not obliged to join AOL. Both practicing dietitians and students are eligible for membership. The site features links to other online dietetic resources and groups, plus listings of employment and internship opportunities. - Gary Barker
Consider this, Slurpee addicts: You could have your own 7-Eleven, and let other people's junk-food purchases finance your consumption. Be the Boss lets you investigate this and other franchising opportunities using a search tool that can narrow the field by business category, location, amount you have to invest, and specific franchise. You'll find a list of tips on evaluating the resulting listings, as well as definitions of franchising terms, descriptions of different types of franchising, and a five-step process for choosing a franchise. The background information is genuinely helpful, but the search feature turns up only franchisers Be the Boss works with. - Sandra Stewart
An offshoot of the Wall Street Journal, this career guidance and job-search publication stocks its Web site with selected features from previous issues; you get only the table of contents from the current issue. The varied articles are organized by topicCyber Strategies; Career Insight; Search Tactics; and Resumes, Networking, and Interviewsand all deliver solid and not necessarily conventional advice. A feature on improving your interview performance, for example, advises against a recital of your qualifications and in favor of using body language to establish a rapport with the interviewer. The only thing wrong with this site is that there isn't more of it; a complete, searchable archive of past issues would be ideal. - Sandra Stewart
How Now bills itself as "the On-Line Business Center for Graphic Designers," but it's really about one facet of business promotion. While the site offers a few tidbits on promoting your own services, its primary mission is to promote services and products to you. These include How magazine, some of whose articles are excerpted at the site; the annual How Design Conference; and new hardware and software releases. Little effort appears to have been expended on substantive content, even in the site's core sections: The news briefs that accompany the advice snippets in Business Bytes and the Software Picks write-ups in Techno Creative Tools read as though they were lifted directly from press releases. - Sandra Stewart
This "virtual trade show" sounds good in theory: Wholesalers put their product-information sheets online, retail buyers peruse them by selecting a product category and type, and both parties save the time and expense of attending a physical trade show. Cyber Merchants Exchange has some kinks to work out, however. There's limited selection in some categories (such as a lack of multimedia products in the Computer & Software section), others are too broadly interpreted, and access times are slow, slow, slow. Even with a high-speed connection, I was drumming my fingers waiting for pages to load. Had I really been looking to stock my swimwear shop with women's bathing suits, I would not have been happy when the first products to appear were goofy beach accessories. - Sandra Stewart