Wake up, make a pot of coffee, sign into one of the dozen mass job search websites like careerbuilder, monster and indeed. Apply to every new job posting that even remotely fits your resume. Rinse and repeat and wait for follow ups to come into your inbox. Days, weeks and months later and Surprise! there are none.
Does this sound like you?
Let’s talk about some of the ways to actually find a job using the internet as an effective tool instead of going with the masses and competing with every single person on the internet. By applying online to the Ebay and Craigslist of job posting websites, chances are that by the time a potential employer receives their thousandth applicant by lunch time day of posting, there will almost always be someone more qualified and attractive on paper to beat you well out of first place.
Let’s begin!
1. Organize your resumes. Each time you create a new flavor or slight variety, save it to a folder and don’t delete it. You never know what creative insights you had that will be useful in the future. Make sure your existing ones have been proof read by yourself and others.
2. State your intent. Start putting together a list or at the very least some heavy thought into the types of jobs and roles that you would like to aggressively pursue that match your experience and qualifications.
3. Find employers in your area. Use a combination of Google Maps and the Internet and do your homework. Start finding out about companies in your area that employee people for the jobs you are looking for. For now, stay away from mass job search engines, you want to find individual company websites.
4. Keep it simple. The most effective way to do this, is imagine you are a customer that would hire this type of company. What sort of key words would you type into a search engine to find them? Example: If you are a radiologist looking for work, try searching for “emergency x-ray service” or just “radiology.”
5. Keep Track. Once you start finding company websites, write them down and keep a log where you can can notes. A word document or Excel spreadsheet is perfect for this. Of particular interest to you as a potential new employee is their rating on Google business and Google maps. Put more attention on the companies with higher average review ratings.
6. Access individual career websites. Look for the career portion of their website. Sometimes it is large button that is easy to find, other times it will be a small line of text at the very bottom that just says “Careers.” It will almost always be listed somewhere off their home page.
7. Search each company’s job postings. Go through all of them regardless of location. Even if there are no open ones in your area, use the job listings to help you fine tune your resume. The listings themselves will usually give away exactly what they are looking for in potential applications. Never lie, but if you have any matching skills or experience, make sure to include it in your resume.
8. Begin applying for your job. Think of these collection of career websites as your own personal career search engine that most do not take the time to find.
9. Apply to other jobs as that are in your pay scale. If a company hires your type of skill set, but there are no current openings in your area, apply anyways to the other openings and include a note that you would be willing to learn more aspects of their business by working outside your role until an opening in your area of expertise comes. You would be surprised at how often this happens, especially at bigger companies, and is extremely encouraged.
10. Get the call back. Continue to search out new companies and custom tailor resumes and cover letters to match job postings, while applying for position that match your experience that are in any geographical location, as well as applying for jobs that do not necessarily match your experience but that you would be happy to do for a year or so until something better comes along. At this step you are looking for a person to reach out and contact you so that you can explain the above.
Example conversations to have are:
“I applied for this job out of state because it seems like a great match for my skill set. Are there any openings in the local branch that you know of, or can you speak to any of the local hiring managers to see what positions are needing to be filled? I would be happy to learn more about the way your company operates by fulfilling a necessary role in the meantime until one opens up that I am more suited for.”
You would be surprised at how much recruiters are willing to work with you, remember that their primary goal is to fill vacant spots for the company, so anything you do to help that is a win-win for them.
Now, land the job. I can share my strategies on how to stand out of the heard, but it’s up to you to ace the interview.
Happy job hunting.
