*Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Do you have a careers story that you’d like to share? Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own finance articles.
Knowing where to find a job is the first step. In today’s career search, the Internet is vital. Gone are the days of faxing and door-to-door marketing (although, do not discount those methods). Email and the Internet are here and they are not going any where any time soon.
While working at a Fortune 500 company, one of my daily goals was to get through all of the resumes that were submitted to our ATS the night before. This can be a tedious process and some gems of a candidate can be overlooked. I once had an employee who mentioned he had applied to a job with our company about six months prior to coming into contact with me. He mentioned he applied through our career portal and that he was surprised he never received a call then because of how exact a match he was to the job opening. Needless to say, we were glad he applied again this time around and we did not miss out on a good candidate. The point? When applying to a job via a company website, it’s best to get in early! That way you are on top of the applicants by date and thus, have a better opportunity of having your resume get read.
Getting Started
If you do not have Internet access, use a friend or family member’s computer or go to your local public library. If you are an Internet novice, enroll in to a class to learn the basics of Internet terminology and navigation. Look for affordable Internet classes at your local public library, community colleges, high schools or other institutions in your area offering these classes to the public. Do not be intimidated or embarrassed. As we stated earlier, in today’s career search, the Internet is vital!
Create an electronic version of your resume with a word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word). You may also want to create an Adobe PDF version of your resume. Depending on where you post your resume or where you email it, they may want a Word version or PDF version. I once had a manager who never opened Word documents for fear of viruses. I once had a hiring manager never open a Word document because he thought most of them were not neatly organized. A PDF is a format that can never change pending your computer, nor can it be rearranged in anyway. Your best bet is to have both versions.
Set up an email account to provide instant access of your resume to employers, networking contacts or recruiting professionals. Free email accounts are available through Yahoo, Google (Gmail) and Hotmail. Create an appropriate and professional email account name, not “BeerDrinker@___.com”. Do not submit your resume with a confusing attachment named “821080res.doc (for example), but rather use your name or a descriptive label (e.g., job title). A candidate of mine who had a vulgar email was once denied by one of my hiring managers simply because the hiring manager read his email address and thought it was inappropriate.
Marketing Yourself on the Internet
Setup profiles on company portals and job boards to showcase your resume and skills.
Post your availability as a job seeker and a brief summary to free classified-based websites including Craigslist, MySpace and Backpage.
Join social networking sites including LinkedIn and Facebook. Set up profiles/blogs on those sites and post your resume and credentials, divulge industry knowledge, share activities you are engaged in, provide your own networking tips or tips on advancing in a given career.
Start a blog on well-known sites such as Twitter, Blogger, TypePad or WordPress to share your professional knowledge and get information from other bloggers. This lets you be proactive, forward-thinking and draws people to you.
Join discussion groups on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo Groups and Google Groups to create an Internet presence that you can use to market yourself. Discussion and networking groups exist for different industries, companies, interests, etc.
Make connections (building your network) on these networking sites. Get advice and give advice. Search company names, co-workers, etc. to see with whom you have connections.
The internet job hunting process has changed tremendously in the past few years. There are four changes that I’ve seen personally that identify the ever-changing landscape. First, social networking sites have been growing in popularity for companies, not just your friends. Companies are utilizing sites like Facebook and Twitter to post openings, update job-seekers on current trends in the industry and keep you up to date on any new news.
Secondly, the internet has been easier to navigate utilizing search techniques within search engines like Google. You can narrow down your searches down to the exact site. For example, you can look-up a company that you are targeting in your job search by using it’s name, but then also the ability to search various blogs and forums to see if that company has been getting any buzz from other content providers. You can also search competitors of companies you are targeting so that you can widen your search and have more success finding employment within a given industry.
Thirdly, blogging has been a trend that is growing tremendously and thus, can provide you with more avenues to reach out to people within your industry and showcase yourself as an expert. By sharing information about products, processes, and trends, your chances of being seen by someone within a hiring department increase dramatically. If you decide to help out people who are searching for answers, then you may just get noticed by someone who sees what kind of value you can present and might be able to help you land an interview.
Finally, creating a personal resume website that is tailored towards your skills and resume can be a benefit for those that are needing a platform to showcase your background. Although it can be expensive, the chances on being found increase due to the Internet being used a main search tool for recruiters. Post projects you have worked on and a portfolio of your services you can offer to a prospective employer. This is a trend that is growing, but not necessarily as fast as the other trends mentioned. However, for $10 a year, it can be a determining factor for you over your competition. By self-marketing yourself on the internet and having a website, you may just be discovered by a recruiter running candidate searches via Google.