Looking for a Job Using the Net to Your Advantage
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature often complicated. While the internet 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 personal, highly directed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your lead generating machine.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got 650 applications in a calendar week. For one opening. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had the right person contacted us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 12 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be sure to check your cover letter and resume carefully! 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 quick triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By passing over prospects whose cover letters gave us causes 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 passing over prospects who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites 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 potential problem to be aware of is how easily you can be checked on on the net. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some MySpace comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to tilt our thoughts about who to employ.
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!
