Looking for a Job Using the Net to Succeed
The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job seeker, but also presents several potential challenges. It also adds many complexities, and a lot more matters to consider…and be careful of.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, extremely aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of colleagues is your source for information.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got more than 650 responses in a calendar week. For one position. That’s increased competition for jobs.
Had the right person gotten ahold of us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing 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 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 taken out with a swift triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By eliminating prospects whose cover letters gave us reasons not to engage them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating job hunters whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over candidates who didn’t trouble to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job boards give you a sense of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still try, if you have a well written 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 downside to be aware of is how easily you can be investigated on the internet. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing larcenous, but enough to swing 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!
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