Looking for a Job Using the Web to Your Advantage
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature very Byzantine. While the web has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and possible challenges for job hunters.
Job search needs to be thought of as a personalized, highly aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. 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 just posted a job on Craigslist and got more than 650 responses in a week. For one position. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had a strong candidate gotten ahold of us before we placed the ad, they could have secured the position before running in to all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 8 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 fast triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us grounds 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 rejecting 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 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 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 quickly you can be checked out on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to rock our thoughts 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!
