Finding a Job Using the Web to Succeed
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature very complicated. 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 personal, highly aimed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of contacts is your lead generating machine.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on Craigslist and got 600 plus applications in a week. For a single position. That’s increased competition for job openings.
Had the right person gotten ahold of us ahead of our posting that ad, they could have secured the position before running in to all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 11 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be careful how you submit your application as well. 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 speedy triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our job posting. By eliminating prospects whose cover letters gave us grounds 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 rejecting candidates who didn’t trouble to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the great news is that job boards 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 try, 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 easily you can be looked up on the web. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some personal web pages that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to swing our thinking about who to choose.
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!