They can be of some help, but the chances are you need some sound advice relating to specific situation. That's where career advice forums come into play.
By using a career advice forum you can put forward your specific questions and get a variety of feedback from people who are or have been in the same position as you.
There are some things to remember before you go posting your message asking for advice.
What forum to post in?
Discussion forums are split into different categories. These categories are further split down into different forums.
For example, "CV advice" could be a category and "CV Appraisals" could be one of the forums in that category.
It's not a big deal if you post in the wrong forum - it just makes the information generated from responses to your request easier to find by other people in the future.
Search first!
You are not alone! No matter what issue you are facing, there are many of people who have gone through it before. If you do a site search for the area that you want to know about you may turn up an old thread (or topic) that answers your problem.
Alternatively you mine find an active thread that you can contribute to.
Be specific!
There is absolutely no point in you posting a message saying "help I need a job". In order for people to help you, you need to ask specific questions.
Tell people a bit about yourself and your situation and end your post with specific questions that you would like answered. This way you are more likely to receive the information you need.
Help out as well!
The main reason that jobseekers face the same problems time and time again is that very few people take the time to pass on their experiences.
If you come to the forum needing advice, then don't feel obliged to post messages in other topics. We are more than happy to help anyone that asks.
But if you can make a good contribution to a discussion then please do so (even if it is contrary to what has been said). The point of having the discussion forum is that everyone can have their say and we all get a few opinions on the subject area.
This way we can accumulate a great resource of information for people who arrive at the forum after you depart.
Network!
You can use the discussion forum to make contact with people in the same industry as you or with the same interests, so you can help each other out with contacts and information.
I am not saying we are running a dating agency here though! Be sensible!
The main point to remember is that no point is to trivial or silly to ask us - we all ask those questions before! If you don't ask them now then they may set you back in your job search.
Feel free to come along to our discussion forum and ask a few questions (or help us answer some, as even we don't have all the answers!
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