Looking for a Job Using the Net to Win
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature very involved. While the net 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 targeted marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of associates is your lead generating machine.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job board and got over 600 applications in a calendar week. For one job. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had a great candidiate contacted us ahead of our posting that ad, they could have secured the position prior to getting all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about 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 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 taken out with a swift triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By eliminating prospects whose cover letters gave us causes not to engage 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 great news is that job sites give you a sense of what companies are 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 easily you can be checked out on the web. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to swing our thoughts about who to employ.
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!
