Job Search Using the Web to Win
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job seeker, but also presents several potential challenges. It also adds great complexities, and a lot more matters to consider…and be mindful of.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, highly directed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of colleagues is your source for information.
So where does the net fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job board and got 600+ responses in a week. For one opening. That’s increased competition.
Had a strong person gotten ahold of us before we ran the ad, they could have landed the job prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing an employee at our office 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 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 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 candidates whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over candidates who didn’t trouble to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the great news is that job boards 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 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 potential problem to be aware of is how easily you can be investigated on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to tilt our thinking about who to choose.
AA-Careers provides a encompassing 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!
