Finding a Job Using the Net to Win
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature fairly complicated. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and possible challenges for job hunters.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, highly directed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of associates is your inside source for information and job leads.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got over 650 responses in a calendar week. For a single opening. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had the right person called us ahead of our posting that ad, they could have gotten the job before getting all that competition. How? By finding someone at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 13 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 eliminated with a fast triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By rejecting candidates whose cover letters gave us causes 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 eliminating prospects who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the great news is that job boards give you a sense of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still try, 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 downside to be aware of is how quickly and easily you can be checked on on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some personal web pages 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!
