Aimee Hutchins moved from Pennsylvania to teach science and social studies to fourth graders at Corinth-Holders Elementary in Johnston County. She found her job online.

Hutchins started by posting a resume on monster.com.

"Monster, it tended to be jobs that weren't related, jobs that I wasn't qualified for," she said.

Then she posted her resume on www.teachers-teachers.com, a site specifically for teachers. She got responses from school districts across the country.

The internet can be a jobseeker's best tool. There's monster.com, careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com.

Indeed.com and simplyhired.com gather listings from the entire web.

You can create a profile and network with potential employers on sites like linkedin.com and jibberjobber.com.

But career counselors say the more focused you are, the better your chances of success.

"One of the temptations is, when you're applying online is to apply for everything because it's easy to do that, just click, apply, apply, apply. That does not necessarily always help you," said North Carolina State University career counselor Leslie Rand-Pickett.

Neither does having a generic resume. Rand-Pickett says you should describe your experience in detail. When employers search online they look for key words, like organizations that you belong to or computer programs that you use, she said.

"If you've only very generically described your experience, you might have forgotten to include one of those keywords in that and not get picked up," she said.

If you're looking for a job in your town or county, Rand-Pickett recommends searching for local sites like the online job board that Jason Pedley started when he moved to Johnston County.

Pedley gets listings from a search engine, blogs about them, and sends updates on twitter.

"Ninety percent of the jobs are all above board jobs, companies like anywhere from SAS to Talecris to other local jobs," he said.

If you're looking in a specific industry, let that guide your search, Rand-Pickett says.

You can find technology jobs on dice.com. If you speak Spanish, search on latpro.com. For jobs with fortune 500 companies, look on jobcentral.com.

But career counselors say you'll have the best chance if you go directly to a company's website to fill out an application.

"If you're trying to do that for 100 companies, then it might be really overwhelming," Rand-Pickett says.

Aimee Hutchins says it does take a lot of time, even after you narrow down your search.

But, "it's definitely worth it if you need a job. And it's nice because you don't have to leave home."

GENERAL JOB SEARCH WEBSITES:
-monster.com
-careerbuilder.com
-hotjobs.yahoo.com
-job.com
-career.com
-jobster.com

JOB SEARCH ENGINES:
-indeed.com
-simplyhired.com
-hound.com

LOCAL JOB RESOURCES:
-Employment Security Commission (ESC) of North Carolina
-JobLink Career Center
-Johnston County and Wake County job board

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC SITES:
-www.quintcareers.com  This page has a long list of industry-specific sites
-www.beyond.com network of local and industry-specific sites
-www.dice.com for technology jobs
-www.jobcentral.com Fortune 500 company jobs
-www.teachers-teachers.com for teachers
-USAJobs.gov Federal government job listings
-www.latpro.com for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking people
-CoolWorks.com for seasonal jobs
-Net-Temps.com for temporary jobs
-SnagAJob.com for hourly job listings

FOR RECENT COLLEGE GRADS:
-www.nacelink.com
-www.jobweb.com
-North Carolina State University career center

PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING:
-www.linkedin.com
-www.jibberjobber.com
-www.tweetmyjobs.com: you can sign up for twitter text alerts with job listings