A modern job hunting campaign is by nature fairly intricate. While the net 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, very aimed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network of contacts is your source for information.
So where does the internet fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on Craigslist and got 600+ responses in a calendar week. For a single job. That’s increased job hunting competition.
Had a great candidiate called us ahead of our posting that ad, they could have landed the position before getting all that competition. How? By finding someone at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware 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 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 removed with a swift triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By rejecting candidates whose cover letters gave us causes not to engage them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating prospects whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over 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 sense of who is 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 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 quickly you can be checked out on the internet. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to tilt our thoughts about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a extensive 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!