Looking for a Job Using the Net to Your Advantage
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010A modern job hunting campaign is by nature very involved. 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 personal, extremely aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network of associates is your source for information.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job board and got hundreds and hundreds applications in a calendar week. For one job. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had the right person gotten ahold of us before we ran the ad, they could have secured the job prior to having all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew 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 careful to check your application materials thoroughly before submitting them. 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 swift triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us causes not to hire 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 eliminating job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the great news is that job sites give you a sense of who is 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 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 issue 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 Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to rock our thinking about who to employ.
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!