Finding a Job Using the Web to Succeed
A modern job search 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 personalized, extremely directed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network of colleagues is your source for job information.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got 600+ responses in a calendar week. For a single position. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had a suitable candidate contacted us before we ran the ad, they could have secured the job before getting all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware 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 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 eliminated with a fast triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By passing over prospects whose cover letters gave us reasons not to employ 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 eliminating job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job boards give you a sense of who is hiring, and for what kinds of positions. 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 potential problem to be aware of is how quickly and easily you can be checked out on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some MySpace comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to sway our thoughts 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!
