Looking for a Job Using the Net 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 think about…and be careful of.
Job hunting 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 source for job information.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job site and got 600+ responses in a week. For one opening. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had the right person called us before we ran the posting, they could have secured the position before having all that competition. How? By finding someone at our company 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 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 removed with a swift triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By rejecting candidates whose cover letters gave us causes not to employ 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 passing over job hunters who didn’t trouble 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 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 easily you can be checked out on the net. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to sway our thoughts about who to choose.
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!
