Searching for a new job is always a challenge. Luckily, the internet has completely changed the way people seek employment and opened up access to opportunities that previously may have gone unnoticed.

An online job site will allow you to expand the available employment options from 10 to 100 miles with a click of the mouse. You can search, find and apply for a job on the other side of the county without every leaving your house.

Employment sites are not created equal. Many simply mine data from other sites and compile it in a central location, but direct you to the original posting to apply. Some sites only offer paid placements and some are a combination of paid ads and mined data. It's important not to limit yourself to one site during you search, because the results vary drastically from one site to another.

Remember these sites make give job listings a larger audience, which means a larger number of people will apply. You may be competing against hundreds of other highly qualified applicants. With so much competition even top notch people (you) will be receiving a few rejection letters. So, Don’t give up.

Think of a job search as a marathon. It takes a lot of dedication to finish the race, but if you keep going eventually you will reach the finish line.

Below is a listing of general job search sites. I will soon have another article for specialty job search sites.

Tab browsing is the easiest way to view and open the links below. Simply right click on the link and select "open a new tab.". This will open the web page in a separate tab while keeping this page open. It's a great way to view multiple sites at once.

Beyond.com
Decent number of quality jobs, mainly with big name companies. Shows how long listing has been posted and the logo of company. BeyondBeyond.com

Career Builder
Could not find any jobs in my area, seems to be geared toward large metropolitan areas.

Career Eagle
Requires registration to search jobs, could not find a way around. You must search for a specific profession, but it brought up a long list of decent jobs in the field I specified.

Career Jet
Selection of jobs complied from other site listings

Career Vitals
Careers in healthcare.

Dice
Did not find any local jobs, but did find jobs in surrounding big cities.

Doostang
Didn't bring up a single job within 100 miles of my area.

Go Jobs
Did not want to let me do a general search without registering, but I was able to by pass registration by scrolling down and selecting a state and then filling in a zip code in the "Where" box.

Government Jobs
Good place to start if you're looking for a job in state and/or local government agencies

Indeed
Decent selection of job opportunities.

Job Hat
After hitting the search button, I was taken to the registration page, I hit the back button and could see a list of jobs for my area at the bottom of the page. There were some interesting jobs, that I had not seen on other sites.

Job Inventory
A large number of jobs from other sites. Good place for one stop shopping.

Job Search Engine
Tries to collect email and pulls listings from other sites, but has a decent offering.

Jobs to Careers
Another great site which gathers listings from other sites. Even had a babysitting job in the listings.

Link Up
This search engine found a fair number of jobs in my surronding area. The opportunities were with known well known companies.

Monster
Big name, but when searching my area it had very small results It did bring up some major big name companies from the surrounding areas, but I had better luck with some of the less well known sites.

Simply Hired
Did not bring up anything for my local area and it seemed to miss some good opportunities found on other sites. This site wants your email address and clicking on a job will take you to other sites where the job is listed.

Snag A Job
Another site that gathers data from other job sites. A search will bring up a decent variety of jobs lists jobs, including merchandiser and demo opportunities. It has a moderate amount of ads and wants you to register, but it’s fairly easy to figure out original source of the posting and by pass registration.

Start Up Hire
The focus is on connecting job seekers with new, emerging businesses. I really like this idea. If you have lots of experience a startup might be the way to get a new start in the business world.

Twit Job Search
Twitter offers a fair number of connections that could lead to a job. This site provides an interesting way to search twitter for jobs.

US Jobs
My search did not turn up any jobs in my local area, but it did find jobs from some big name companies in my surrounding communities.