Job Search Using the Web to Succeed
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature often complex. While the web has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and potential challenges for job hunters.
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 colleagues is your source for information.
So where does the net fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on Craigslist and got 650 responses in a week. For a single job. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had a strong candidate called us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the job prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing an employee at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 12 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be sure to check your application matierials carefully! 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 employer would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. 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 rejecting candidates who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites 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 investigated on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some MySpace comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to tilt our thinking about who to choose.
AA-Careers provides a comprehensive 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!