The Online Act

Job Search Using the Web to Your Advantage

December 30th, 2009

The Internet offers huge opportunities for a job hunter, but also presents several possible challenges. It also adds several complexities, and a lot more matters to consider…and be wary of.

Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, very targeted marketing process 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 just posted a job on Craigslist and got 650 applications in a week. For one job. That’s increased competition.

Had a strong person gotten ahold of us before we placed the ad, they could have gotten the position before having all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware 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 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 removed with a speedy triage process. How? The same way any HR professional would. By passing over 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 eliminating prospects who didn’t trouble to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.

So the great news is that job boards give you a feel of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of positions. But once those jobs 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 quickly and easily you can be checked out on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to tilt our thinking about who to employ.

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!

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