Job Hunting Using the Web to Win
A modern job hunting campaign is by nature pretty Byzantine. 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 highly personal, extremely aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. 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 a popular job site and got 600+ applications in a calendar week. For a single opening. That’s increased competition.
Had a great candidiate contacted us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position prior to getting all that competition. How? By knowing an employee at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 10 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 quick triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job posting. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us grounds not to employ 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 great 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 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 thing to be aware of is how 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 larcenous, but enough to swing 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!
