You’ve been hearing it time and again from professors and advisers, and now the numbers prove that it really never is too early to start looking for a job.

According to the Experience Inc.’s fifth annual college graduate survey from www.collegerecruiter.com, 50 percent of students who had just graduated last semester from college were still looking for a job. Only 22 percent of those surveyed had received job offers.

These results show how important it is to start the job search as early as you can. Job searching may seem like an overwhelming and difficult task, but with the help of these top 10 search engines, you’ll be able to refine and simplify your search. Choose the search engine that’s best suited for you to help make your job search manageable.

1. Monster.com: Job search engine with lots of extras

– Narrows your search by location, keyword and employer

– Job search extras: Networking boards, job search alerts and online resume posting

2. Indeed.com: A meta-search job engine

– Uncovers a lot of jobs that you wouldn’t normally find on most job search sites

– User-friendly Web site

3. FedWorld.gov: Find a federal government job

– Gateway into the world of U.S. government jobs

– Detailed federal jobs

4. CareerBuilder.com: One of the largest job search engines

– Search engine that offers numerous resources to the job searcher

– Offers the ability to find a career, post a resume, create alerts about new postings, get advice, look up career fairs and more

– Includes list of job search communities

5. Dice.com: Technology job search engine

– Dedicated to only finding technology jobs

– Offers those searchers with a security clearance the ability to search on ClearanceJobs.com, a different career search engine

6. JobBankInfo.org: A mammoth job search engine

– One of the largest job search engines on the Web today

– Reports more than 2 million jobs in their database and more than 15,000 new jobs being posted every day

– Search by job title, keyword, military or job number

7. HotJobs.yahoo.com: A personalized job search engine

– Yahoo Hot Jobs is linked to your Yahoo ID (if you have one), so once you’re signed into Yahoo, you’re signed into Hot Jobs

– Search by location with Hot Jobs and you will see all the jobs in your general area

8. SimplyHired.com: Simple job search engine

– Allows the user to “train” the job search engine by rating jobs he or she is interested in

– Gives the ability to research salaries, add jobs to a job map and view detailed profiles of various companies

– Simply Fired contest for the best stories about getting fired

9. LinkedIn.com: A social networking job search engine

– LinkedIn claims “you find the people, jobs and services you need through the people you know and trust, while you strengthen and extend your existing network”

– Combines the ability to scour the Internet for jobs with its search engine and the opportunity to network with like-minded friends and individuals to deepen your search

10. Craigslist.org: Community classifieds job search

– Large database of anything you could ever need, including jobs, services, housing and more

– The jobs posted on Craigslist tend to be some of the most eclectic, truly interesting jobs around on the Web

Beyond search engines, other effective processes for looking for a job are right in your AccessPlus. Available jobs can be found on the Student Job Board. You will find up to 20 categories, ranging from retail and sales to graphic design and media.

Here are a few important factors to consider when selecting your employer:

– Interesting and important work

– Industry is growing

– Benefits

– Balance of work and personal life

– Long-term job security

– Opportunities for promotion exist now or in the near future

– Work in field of study

– Location/environment and job where one can grow and learn

– Employer has a strong ethical background