By T.J. Ripley, AIRS Staff Writer

The resumes of experienced candidates frequently contain mentions of awards of excellence. Such awards, presented by industry peers and mentors, are a sure sign of expertise and talent. Instead of waiting for awards to appear on the resumes in your inbox, go find them!

Many sites maintain information about the competitions that they sponsor and the people who win them. Additionally, they often include information about the judges - another group of experts you can target in your searches. Here are a variety of places we found when looking for award winners and judges.

Organizations and Associations

Professional associations and organizations frequently present awards to colleagues who have achieved a level of excellence on a particular project or for a sustained period. Here are some examples of sites that contain information about such award winners and judges.

The Association of Support Professionals has honored ten companies as the Best Web Support Sites. Obviously, those companies have a highly developed and professional support staff and you can target those companies when looking for candidates. But the site also has a link to the panel of expert judges who selected those sites. There's even a brief bio of each of the 39 judges.

The Society of Technical Communicators has a yearly competition to award excellence in a variety of technical fields. The Competition page contains links to winners in categories such technical publications, technical art, online communication and technical video.

Though many "Best of the Web" awards have ceased operation, there are still some Web sites that honor designers, engineers and producers who create outstanding work. Here is one such site: The WorldBest web site Awards page pays tribute to Web sites that are judged to be best of breed in design and communication. From their site you can peruse a variety of beautifully constructed Web sites, as well as obtain a list of judges chosen from a list of past winners.

Publications

Business and technical publications are another good source for finding judges and award winners. Here is an example of a site that highlights excellence: Inside Business, based in Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, has created a Web page that pays tribute to 40 local people under 40 who are successful in business and involved in the community. You can view a list of list of the judges and the recipients, who include a tax manager, director of community development, architect, CEOs and a handful of attorneys.

-- T.J. Ripley is a journalist and Web explorer for AIRS, the global leader in Internet recruitment, tools, news and information. This article is reprinted by permission from AIRS, a global leader in Internet recruitment, tools, news and information. For more information on AIRS, please go to: http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com/pages/airs.php. Copyright © Hanover Capital Management Corporation 1997-2001. All Rights Reserved