Finding a Job Using the Net to Your Advantage
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds several complexities, and a lot more things to think about…and be wary of.
Job search needs to be thought of as a personal, very targeted marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of colleagues is your source for information and opportunities.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job board and got 600+ applications in a calendar week. For one job. That’s increased competition.
Had a strong person gotten ahold of us before we posted the ad, they could have landed the position before running in to all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 14 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be careful to check your application materials thoroughly before submitting them. When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily removed with a quick triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job posting. By eliminating candidates whose cover letters gave us grounds not to engage them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating candidates whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the great news is that job sites give you a feel of who is hiring, and for what kinds of positions. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still compete, if you have a well thought out resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.
Another issue to be aware of is how quickly and easily you can be checked out on the internet. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some personal web pages that were in questionable taste. Nothing crazy, but enough to swing our thinking about who to choose.
AA-Careers provides a broad set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.
Be careful out there, and good hunting!
