Job Search Using the Internet to Your Advantage
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds many complexities, and a lot more things to consider…and be wary of.
Job search needs to be thought of as a personalized, extremely aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your source for information.
So where does the net 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 position. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had a strong candidate contacted us before we placed the ad, they could have landed the job prior to running in to all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 11 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be careful how you submit your application as well. When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily taken out with a fast-paced triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By rejecting candidates whose cover letters gave us reasons not to employ them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating job hunters whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by rejecting candidates who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job boards give you a feel of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those jobs are posted, the competition is intense. You can still compete, if you have a well written 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 easily you can be investigated on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing larcenous, but enough to tilt our thoughts about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a extensive 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!
