As my last official act, I want to remind you that the Post-Dispatch/Monster/stltoday.com is one of the most powerful tools available to help you find employers and employers find you.

Monster is a conduit to social networking, a dynamic search engine, a résumé database, and a career ad network that can serve career opportunities directly to you, as a job seeker, regardless of where you are on the World Wide Web. Finally, Monster is a powerful partner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and thousands of other popular sites, giving you the local and global reach you need to succeed.

Inside today's paper, you'll find classified ads that can connect you with employers. Many of those same ads can be found in Now Hiring, a Post-Dispatch publication that is available for free pick up at over 1,000 locations in Illinois and Missouri combined. However, the power of the Post-Dispatch is ramped up online by the power of Monster — giving you the ability to search the Web and connect with targeted ads on stltoday.com.

Let's take a look at some of the features available on the stltoday.com/jobs page.

The most dominant feature is the "Search for Jobs with Monster" search engine. Here, you can search for jobs by keywords and location, or browse by job category. Either way, you should take advantage of the "post your résumé" function, which introduces you to hundreds of employers in one step.

Just as job seekers use stltoday.com/jobs and Monster to search for opportunities, employers can use this powerful duo to search for you.

Here are just a few of the many ways stltoday.com/jobs and Monster put powerful resources at your fingertips.

1. Over 58,000 new résumés are added to the Résumé Database daily. That's a staggering number, and many people will say, "What chance do I have against 58,000-plus people?" I don't have the answer to that question, but I do know that you lessen the effectiveness of your job search if you choose not to be one of the 58,000-plus people who have a résumé posted to the site. When creating or updating your résumé, remember to use key words so employers can find you.

2. Over 8 million job searches are performed on Monster every day. Is it any wonder that employers so often turn to Monster and the Post-Dispatch to find the best candidates for the job?

3. Monster's Career Ad Network can transform an employer's message into a targeted media campaign with you in mind. Have you ever noticed how ads for your favorite company seem to follow you from website to website? That's because your favorite company is using technology to find you. Guess what? When you post your résumé to stltoday.com/jobs, potential employers can use that same technology to invite you to apply for jobs. Try it. Upload your résumé to stltoday.com/jobs; then watch the ads that pop-up on your favorite sites. You might be surprised how many are targeting your career goals and skills.

4. Monster combines the power of job searching and social networking with sites such as Facebook and BeKnown.

5. Once uploaded, your résumé works for you 24 hours a day.

Are you using a smart phone? Mobile advertising is witnessing explosive growth, which gives job seekers with smart phones a definite technological edge. Employer-specific sites, such as m.stltoday.com, allow job seekers to go directly to a company's mobile site from their iPad or smart phone, so they never have to miss an opportunity.

According to a recent Merrill Lynch report, by the year 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. Mobile is rapidly becoming the place where employers go to seek out technology-savvy job seekers — and we're proud to say that the Post-Dispatch is there.

Through mobile, print and online resources, we can give you a lead on career success.

On a final note, I want to thank you for all the notes and calls I received this week. They mean more than you may know. Good luck!