The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds several complexities, and a lot more things to consider…and be careful of.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a highly personal, very aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network of associates is your inside source for information and job leads.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got hundreds and hundreds applications in a calendar week. For a single position. That’s increased job hunting competition.
Had a strong candidate contacted us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position before running in to 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 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 taken out with a quick triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By rejecting prospects whose cover letters gave us grounds 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 passing over prospects who didn’t trouble to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites give you a feel 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 downside to be aware of is how quickly and 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 larcenous, but enough to sway our thinking about who to hire.
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!