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Job sites can be very useful if you're prepared!Oct 12 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Internet job search engines and job sites are a very useful tool, but you have to be prepared!
First let me begin with why I'm such a fan of job sites. I have used them for three job searches and found they are a fantastic tool. My current job (which I was turned on to through a job site) is a with a fantastic Fortune 100 corporation (I think we were #48 last time I checked). I have wonderful benefits, a generous salary, an interesting career, and a great work environment. Had it not been for online listings and job search engines, I would be stuck in my last dead-end job! Some history: A while ago, I abruptly lost a job - how unsettling. If you've been there (or are there now) you know what I mean. One day you're fat, dumb, & happy...the next you're unemployed! I found out on a Wednesday that Friday would be my last day. I had to find a job & I had to find one fast! One more paycheck coming, then I'd have to crack the nest egg...uh oh! So what's the first thing I do? I raced home at lunch time & dusted off the old resume. I made some quick changes, saved it as an ASCII file, & sent it into cyberspace at places like monster, flipdog, etc. Later that day, I sent it out to almost a hundred employers answering ads posted on several sites. Wow...this was sure to get me something - fast! Well...maybe not. This was my first experience with these sites & I found out the hard way that I had a lot to learn. I anxiously waited for someone from one of these companies to contact me. I posted my resume on some more sites so every recruiter could find me easily. And I anxiously waited some more. Nothing. Not one interview. Not one call. Hmmm.... Something has got to be wrong I thought. I was more than qualified for some of the employers I sent my resume to, so what was the holdup? Then I started to question my resume. I hadn't really given it that much work & just assumed it was still "good". I started doing some research & found out exactly what happens to a resume that gets sent to an employer online from a job site. I found out just how unprepared I was for this medium! I did a little more research & fixed up my resume. Now were getting somewhere! Well...again, maybe not. I did start getting some "bites" from my updated resume, but not for any positions that I was really interested in. I still was sending out at least 20 per day for different postings - all over the U.S. But I got very little response at all. I decided it was time for some real help. I found an agency to write my resume for me. Now we're getting somewhere for sure!!! Bingo! I went with one of the agencies that does everything for you (I was really getting frustrated & needed all the help that was available!). I had my resume written - (which now made me look like a superhero!). They also wrote a special resume for me & gave it to me on disk. It was pretty much the same resume they had written, but it was a formatted text file & a lot of the information was reworded. This one was to use online so that computers would like it! They also posted this resume for me on a lot of search engines that I had never heard of before. That very same day I was called for an interview. Imagine that! What a difference that made. Now I was getting a lot of response to my postings and I even got calls from several employers they sent my resume to! I found a decent management job that was close to home very quickly after the last resume fix. The money was good, but definitely not my dream job. Hey, I needed a paycheck. I still left my resume posted & was getting calls now & then, but I wasn't actively applying for new jobs. Then I get this call from Dell for a position in a local manufacturing plant. The folks who wrote my resume saw Dell's posting & thought I'd be a good fit so they sent my resume. I can't thank them enough! Like a lot of my writings at Epinions, this one seems to go against the grain. I am all for internet jobsites and encourage every job seeker to use them. The positives of these sites dramatically outweigh the negatives posted in others' advice I've read here. The most glaring of the negatives I've read so far is that when you do a search, way too many listings are found. Hmmm.... Too much opportunity is a bad thing? This is fantastic folks!!! The more, the better, especially when the search is narrowed by salary range, geographic location, job description, skills, keywords, etc. The key to being successful is your resume. These sites are so easy to use - & trust me - people use them. Thousands of people every hour are replying to job postings or posting their resumes. In order for you to be successful, your resume has to be written in a way that will make it attractive to computers! When you send a resume online, it goes right into a database and certain programs sift through the database to find qualified applicants. If you want your resume to get "hits" from these databases, you need to ensure its in the form they want. Computers look for certain keywords or phrases in your resume. Also, noun phrases hit higher than action verb phrases - the opposite of the what works when people read a resume. They also look for specific information based on the position's & company's requirements. Examples of what will help: Instead of: Achieved far above sales metrics consistently. Use: Over 100% sales quota for seven consecutive quarters. Why: As bullet statements, they're both ok. The first might read as stronger. A computer program looking through a database, however, will be much more likely to hit on the second phrasing. Instead of: Developed, implemented, and managed safety awareness program for Northeast region. Use: Reduced OSHA recordable injuries to zero over a one year period for Northeast region by designing a safety awareness program. Why: Again, the first one is a little more appealing to a human reader, but a computer would not care too much for the way its worded. The computer would more likely hit on the second phrase. Resources: www.platinumresumes.com - resume service I used search engines & sites www.headhunter.net www.flipdog.com www.careerbuilder.com www.myjobsearch.com www.superperformance.com/jobsearch www.learning.ca/jobsearch.html www.dfin.com/dfcareer_searchengines.htm  |
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by Freak369
