Job Search Using the Net to Your Advantage

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

Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personalized, extremely aimed marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network of contacts is your source for information and opportunities.

So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on Craigslist and got 650 responses in a calendar week. For one job. That’s increased competition.

Had a suitable candidate contacted us before we placed the ad, they could have landed the job prior to getting all that competition. How? By finding an employee at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 8 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?

Be careful to check your application materials thoroughly before submitting them. 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 manager would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By eliminating candidates whose cover letters gave us grounds not to hire 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 eliminating candidates who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.

So the great 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 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 issue to be aware of is how easily you can be checked on on the internet. As we Googled several job hunters, 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!