Job Hunting Using the Internet to Win
A modern job search campaign is by nature often complex. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and potential challenges for job hunters.
Job search needs to be thought of as a personalized, very aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of contacts is your source for job leads.
So where does the net fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job board and got over 650 responses in a calendar week. For one opening. That’s increased job hunting competition.
Had a great candidiate called us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position 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 was aware 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 eliminated with a swift triage process. How? The same way any HR professional would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By rejecting 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 prospects whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by eliminating job hunters who didn’t bother 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 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 downside to be aware of is how easily you can be checked out on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to swing our thinking about who to choose.
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!