Careerealism Webinar Summary: Ways to Use Job Boards for Interviews
I participated in one of
Careerealism's free webinars today and summarized what I heard from the 3 presenters. Basically - what I took from this, is job boards should not be used as your primary search tool, but are a great jumping off point for doing research on specific companies, branding yourself for specific jobs, and applying smartly. Technology is not a shortcut. It only helps you to put in the necessary work.
My Notes from the speakers CEO, Toby Dayton and Co-Founder, GL Hoffman, from JobDig.com
___________________
Be careful of job boards, do NOT pay for them.
Stay away from the gigantic job boards (Monster, Yahoo, etc). Too much competition. They are not timely about taking down old job postings, many duplicates
Stick to Niche Markets Sites- geographic or industry job boards
Linkup and Indeed and Simply hired are job board aggregators. They will scour the internet for the big job postings from companies directly.
It is always better to go to the direct company website
There are too many unqualified job seekers that overwhelm the HR hiring person. Do not apply if you are not qualified. End of story. Example: Martha Stewart Living - had a posting for 1 hour - received 1000 applications. HR person cannot respond to that many.
You have to use a lot of tools to find quality postings. Take advantage of social media - LinkedIn very important, LinkUp as well. Use a lot of KEYWORDS!
Jobseekers must spend hours and hours everyday pursuing many avenues. Job searching IS a full time job.
Networking with friends, family, colleagues, alumni, contacts are important - "That really is how people get hired today"
Know what you want, know what they want. Evaluate what skills you can bring to the company. Make a list, use these words in your search.
Linkup has jobs related to your skills when you define the search. Read the job descriptions carefully. Find similar jobs.
Know what they want - researching a company by signing up for the company on Facebook, sign up for their newsletters, read press releases - do your research on the company you want to work for. When you apply, having known the company and what they want, then you'll have a better application. Doing this for every site you visit - it is well worth it.
Should jobseekers apply to multiple positions for the same company? Look to see if there are directions from the company. Sometimes multiple check boxes, sometimes apply for each. If there is no guidance - err on the side of applying for each position.
"It's not up to the HR person to figure out where you fit. It's your job as the job seeker to identify what the company wants and address it in your fine tuned cover letter and fine tuned resume."
Diversify/Identify
The email aggregators might not be timely. The pull at night and you get it the next day.
Use Google advanced search. Keywords and using "quotes" are a plus. Take half hour and figure it out.
Match your keyword skills with the company key words in the job description.
Keywords make a huge difference. Looking for social media jobs? Don't just type "Social Media" in your search. Look for words like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. Job descriptions will have the descriptions you're looking for. Then read them top to bottom. Do NOT just apply for the sake of applying.
(Taken directly from their slide)
Review:
Company's Own Career sites
Properly search and use tools
Be Unique and stand out
Do the research
Understand HR
Personal Branding will define how you search. Match your brand, your keywords, to job postings.
LinkUp Job Search Engine. You're responsible for your search. It's a great supplement.
"Use all the up to date and new technology - but you can only go so far with it. Put in the effort to get what you want. It won't just come to you. Apply a personal touch, there are no short cuts, it is still a lot of hard work. The tools only enable better work."
Companies do NOT always advertise their jobs on job boards. You will not see all of the openings a company may have. Go directly to the corporate website to see all of them. They may not be advertising anywhere, but LinkUp will help to find more of those positions.
Linkup goes out and indexes about 20,000 company websites. Pulls in job listing from company websites. Updating everyday. Do not search by job title - search by keywords. When you apply at linkup, you are applying directly to the company websites. NOT a job board. Linkup also has advertising relationships with companies - the top 2 listings are sponsored companies. Just like Google's search. The rest are all based on your search query.
If you're in your 20s, pick your location, pick your industry, figure out your lifestyle and then apply to companies.
The more information you work with, the better the searches are going to be. But also experiment. Try different things and expand.
Apply on line and also a hard copy? Depends on the size of the company and positions. 50/50 shot. Big companies may equal scanning and extra work. Up to you.
Verified Time - last time they went out and reconfirmed that the listing was still available
Extremely challenging environment. There are jobs out there!
________
EXCELLENT webinar! Careerealism.com's website will have the information out on their website, and they have more webinars upcoming. Go to their site and register!
My Notes from the speakers CEO, Toby Dayton and Co-Founder, GL Hoffman, from JobDig.com
___________________
Be careful of job boards, do NOT pay for them.
Stay away from the gigantic job boards (Monster, Yahoo, etc). Too much competition. They are not timely about taking down old job postings, many duplicates
Stick to Niche Markets Sites- geographic or industry job boards
Linkup and Indeed and Simply hired are job board aggregators. They will scour the internet for the big job postings from companies directly.
It is always better to go to the direct company website
There are too many unqualified job seekers that overwhelm the HR hiring person. Do not apply if you are not qualified. End of story. Example: Martha Stewart Living - had a posting for 1 hour - received 1000 applications. HR person cannot respond to that many.
You have to use a lot of tools to find quality postings. Take advantage of social media - LinkedIn very important, LinkUp as well. Use a lot of KEYWORDS!
Jobseekers must spend hours and hours everyday pursuing many avenues. Job searching IS a full time job.
Networking with friends, family, colleagues, alumni, contacts are important - "That really is how people get hired today"
Know what you want, know what they want. Evaluate what skills you can bring to the company. Make a list, use these words in your search.
Linkup has jobs related to your skills when you define the search. Read the job descriptions carefully. Find similar jobs.
Know what they want - researching a company by signing up for the company on Facebook, sign up for their newsletters, read press releases - do your research on the company you want to work for. When you apply, having known the company and what they want, then you'll have a better application. Doing this for every site you visit - it is well worth it.
Should jobseekers apply to multiple positions for the same company? Look to see if there are directions from the company. Sometimes multiple check boxes, sometimes apply for each. If there is no guidance - err on the side of applying for each position.
"It's not up to the HR person to figure out where you fit. It's your job as the job seeker to identify what the company wants and address it in your fine tuned cover letter and fine tuned resume."
Diversify/Identify
The email aggregators might not be timely. The pull at night and you get it the next day.
Use Google advanced search. Keywords and using "quotes" are a plus. Take half hour and figure it out.
Match your keyword skills with the company key words in the job description.
Keywords make a huge difference. Looking for social media jobs? Don't just type "Social Media" in your search. Look for words like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. Job descriptions will have the descriptions you're looking for. Then read them top to bottom. Do NOT just apply for the sake of applying.
(Taken directly from their slide)
Review:
Company's Own Career sites
Properly search and use tools
Be Unique and stand out
Do the research
Understand HR
Personal Branding will define how you search. Match your brand, your keywords, to job postings.
LinkUp Job Search Engine. You're responsible for your search. It's a great supplement.
"Use all the up to date and new technology - but you can only go so far with it. Put in the effort to get what you want. It won't just come to you. Apply a personal touch, there are no short cuts, it is still a lot of hard work. The tools only enable better work."
Companies do NOT always advertise their jobs on job boards. You will not see all of the openings a company may have. Go directly to the corporate website to see all of them. They may not be advertising anywhere, but LinkUp will help to find more of those positions.
Linkup goes out and indexes about 20,000 company websites. Pulls in job listing from company websites. Updating everyday. Do not search by job title - search by keywords. When you apply at linkup, you are applying directly to the company websites. NOT a job board. Linkup also has advertising relationships with companies - the top 2 listings are sponsored companies. Just like Google's search. The rest are all based on your search query.
If you're in your 20s, pick your location, pick your industry, figure out your lifestyle and then apply to companies.
The more information you work with, the better the searches are going to be. But also experiment. Try different things and expand.
Apply on line and also a hard copy? Depends on the size of the company and positions. 50/50 shot. Big companies may equal scanning and extra work. Up to you.
Verified Time - last time they went out and reconfirmed that the listing was still available
Extremely challenging environment. There are jobs out there!
________
EXCELLENT webinar! Careerealism.com's website will have the information out on their website, and they have more webinars upcoming. Go to their site and register!