12.24.09
Looking for a Job Using the Web to Your Advantage
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job seeker, but also presents several potential challenges. It also adds many complexities, and a lot more matters to consider…and be wary of.
Job search needs to be thought of as a highly personal, very targeted marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of colleagues is your source for job information.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job site and got 650 applications in a calendar week. For one position. That’s increased competition.
Had a strong candidate contacted us before we placed the ad, they could have gotten the job prior to getting 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 8 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be sure to check your application matierials carefully! 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 fast-paced triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job posting. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us causes 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 eliminating candidates who didn’t trouble 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 try, if you have a well honed 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 thing to be aware of is how easily you can be checked out on the net. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to rock our thinking about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a comprehensive 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!
