Job Search Using the Internet to Succeed
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job seeker, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds some complexities, and a lot more things to consider…and be careful of.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a highly personal, extremely aimed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of associates is your source for information and opportunities.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job site and got more than 650 applications in a week. For a single job. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had the right person contacted us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the job prior to getting all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 10 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 eliminated with a fast-paced triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By eliminating prospects whose cover letters gave us reasons not to hire 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 job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job boards give you a sense 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 issue to be aware of is how quickly you can be looked up on the net. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some personal web pages that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to tilt our thoughts about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a all-inclusive 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!
