Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2012. Its advice on job portals and social networks reflects how online job hunting worked in 2012.
With the arrival of new technologies, a large number of “job promotion” websites have sprung up, becoming shop windows for companies and candidates alike, all sharing the same sign: “wanted”.
These job websites offer:
For candidates: a constant presence for every job offer, displayed in a shop window that all companies can see.
For companies: the chance to find many potential candidates for their needs, with every possible qualification.
However, everything that has benefits also has its side effects. These lines offer some tips to keep in mind for candidates putting themselves on offer.
Don’t forget…
Complete 100% of your CV on the various job portals online. All the information matters and should be filled in, so that any company searching finds everything you can offer for each vacancy. Besides, CVs that aren’t properly completed are seen as a sign of lack of interest.
Don’t be tiresome and inopportune. Let me explain: we may be desperate to look for a job and find one, but it isn’t useful, and even less beneficial, for a candidate to apply for every vacancy that gets posted without meeting the requirements the company is looking for. Being present in every possible offer can be very counterproductive. It’s better to apply only to those that could lead to a real result.
Social networks and online job hunting have an added problem. Just as candidates look up companies online to learn about the goals and principles of the places where they want to work, companies also look up the candidates who apply for their vacancies. This is where we need to take care of our public image and make sure that searches for our name don’t turn up “things” that could hurt our chances for the job we’ve applied for.
Waiting won’t get you there: we should turn the time we spend looking for a job into our job, and keep searching by every means available, updating our CV and checking every vacancy that comes up.
Live in the present, although opinions may differ on this one. Connecting online with colleagues and friends we’ve been out of touch with for a long time isn’t useful. When it comes to asking for references or sharing contacts, what they say will carry little weight. Recent contacts will do more for us than people we haven’t been in touch with for a long time.
The internet can’t do everything, so keep other job-hunting channels alive as well.
Featured image: Andreas Klinke Johannsen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
