Finding a Job Using the Net to Win
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds several complexities, and a lot more things to think about…and be wary of.
Job search needs to be thought of as a personal, highly aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your lead generating machine.
So where does the net fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on Craigslist and got hundreds and hundreds applications in a calendar week. For one opening. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had a great candidiate gotten ahold of us before we placed the ad, they could have secured the job before getting all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows someone at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware of the job for at least 7 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 removed with a quick triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By rejecting 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 candidates whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by rejecting job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites give you a sense of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of positions. 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 quickly and easily you can be looked up on the internet. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some MySpace comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to tilt our thinking about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a broad 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!
