The Internet – Your Job Hunting Friend?
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009A modern job hunting campaign is by nature really intricate. While the Web has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for outstanding jobs and potential hurdles for job seekers.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a highly individualized, highly targeted marketing and selling process where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your lead generating engine.
So where does the Internet fit in? At AACareers, we recently put up a job on Craigslist and got 600+ resumes in a workweek. For a single opening. That’s exaggerated competition.
Had the right person contacted us ahead of our posting that ad, they could have secured the job prior to getting all that competition. How? By knowing a person at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware of the job for at least a week before it was posted. Who in your extended network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
So the good news is that job sites give you a sense of who is hiring, and for what kinds of careers. But once those jobs are posted, the competition is strong. You can still compete, if you have a well honed resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.
Another problem to be aware of is how easily you can be looked up on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some pictures and comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing larcenous, but enough to sway our thinking about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a comprehensive set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.
Be careful out there, and good hunting!


