My problem with all of those boards (Monster, Dice, HotJobs, etc.) is that the vast majority of jobs listed are by recruiters. I used to think that by going out of my way to be active rather than reactive in terms of looking for a new job, I could avoid the need for having to work with headhunters. But apparently most companies don't even both to post their jobs, they just farm everything out to the staffing agencies. (/me scratches his head trying to think of a new synonym...)

Also, I've found that most of those site, especially HotJobs, are spamhavens from hell. I've had my resume offline for months and I still get stuff that came from there. Bleah.

</horse>

-dlc

HotJobs is good because they cater to the company, not the headhunter (I believe it was them). I had more direct company->me contact from them than anyone else.
Also, many sites spider those sites and shove you into their own database. I have gotten calls like: "Hi Kevin, I got the resume you posted on XYZ-board", and I would say "No you didn't, because I didn't.. have a good day".

But yes, the problem is the person writing the ad.. these ads are no good:

SKILLS NEEDED: PERL, C, C++, JAVA, BEANS, SQL, ORACLE, VB, JAVASCRIPT, FLASH, HTML, SCHEME, UNIX, NT, SOLARIS, MYSQL, PYTHON, PHP, CGI, PGP, CYRPTO, SSL, APACHE, IIS. IF YOU HAVE THESE SKILLS, THIS JOB IS FOR YOU!

Cheers,
KM

Here's a recent one I received. Again, my job search agent says "Perl." Kind of amusing, actually:

POSITION TITLE : Designer
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS: ASIC/FPGA Designer

The following opportunity is available immediately: This is a great opportunity to work as an ASIC/FPGA Designer for the leading supplier of transmission networks for broadband access to the home, digital interactive subscriber systems for video, high speed Internet, and voice over IP (VoIP) networks, and worldwide customer service and support. ASIC/FPGA DESIGNERS Qualified candidates will have experience in ASIC or FPGA design with Synopsis and Verilog orVHDL. Working knowledge of one or more of the following is also a plus: PrimeTime, IKOS, FastScan, TCI, Perl, TetraMAX, Sunrise, C/C++, NTSC and MPEG. Tasks: These positions entail the development, design, modification, integration and verification of complex 1M to 5M+ gate digital integrated circuits and FPGAs for video, voice and data services...