Job Search Using the Web to Win
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds some complexities, and a lot more things to consider…and be wary of.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, highly targeted marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your source for information.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got hundreds and hundreds responses in a week. For a single opening. That’s increased competition.
Had a suitable candidate gotten ahold of us before we ran the posting, they could have gotten the job prior to running in to all that competition. How? By finding someone who knows someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew 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 sure to check your cover letter and resume 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-paced triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By rejecting prospects 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 eliminating prospects who didn’t trouble 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 honed 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 investigated on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing crazy, but enough to rock our thoughts about who to hire.
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!