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Don’ts Of Online Jobhunting
Courtesy Jobnet Magazine
The tight job market has brought new mistakes to light, mistakes that
most professionals make in their job search on and off the internet..
So we’ve brought them out for you.
Read about them here so you can avoid making them yourself. This is
not a hopeless cause! Don’t be discouraged! Just pay attention, and be
careful. Millions of people find jobs every year, and so will you!
Here goes…
Posting your resume without worrying about privacy.
Protect your identity and your existing job, if you are employed, by
limiting access to your contact information (address and phone
number). Many employers do search for their employees’ resumes in the
job site resume/applicant database and/or the search engines. Those
employees’ jobs are at risk when their resumes are found!
According to the FBI, identity theft is the top Internet fraud.
Millions of complete resumes make it easy!
Yes, suppressing your contact information may make you a bit more
difficult to contact, but it’s a trade-off. Some recruiters view it as
positive sign that the job seeker is Internet-savvy and/or has a good
job to protect. Some recruiters are annoyed.
Using only the big name Web job sites.
Many of the “big names” are great sites, but they can also be
expensive for employers to use and not focused for some job
opportunities. So, in tight budgetary times, employers save money
using smaller, less expensive or “niche” sites that may have exactly
the applicants they want, like an industry- or location-specific job
site or even the Web site of a professional or industry association.
Using the “fire-ready-aim” method of distributing your resume.
Posting your resume at hundreds of job sites or “blasting” it to
hundreds or thousands of recruiters and employers is a self-defeating
strategy. You won’t be able to customize it for a specific employer or
opportunity, which reduces your chances of being called. And, you
won’t be able to follow up the resume with a phone call or an e-mail
to establish contact and move your application forward in the process.
Most recipients of
e-mailed resumes will probably view it as spam, if it survives the
spam filters.
In the unlikely event that
someone receives your resume who might have been interested in you,
they know that everyone else has a copy of it, too. If the recipient
is an independent recruiter, they will ignore it because they will
know that they’ll have a tough time earning a commission on your
placement (an employer may also have received it directly or competing
recruiters may be “shopping” your resume around to the same
employers). An employer probably won’t be interested in competing with
several other employers.
All of this negatively impacts your “market value.”
Limiting your job search efforts to the Internet only.
Even if you have a job and can only job hunt at home in your spare
time, don’t focus all of your attention online. People are hired by
people, so the Internet is only useful as a way to reach the people
with the job opportunities. Use the Internet as a part of your job
search toolkit.
Applying for jobs without meeting the minimum qualifications.
It’s SO easy just to click on that “apply” button, even if you don’t
really qualify for the job. But, it’s a self-defeating strategy. You
will be training recruiters and employers to ignore you. And, you
won’t look very smart, either.
Depending on e-mail as your only method of contact.
Spam, defined as unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, comprises up to
55% of e-mail traffic, and it’s become a significant expense for many
companies. The sad truth these days is that most employers have “spam
filter” software screening e-mail before it reaches recipients. Your
messages may look like spam to the filter and be deleted, unread,
without any notice to you (the suspected spammer). So, always
follow-up your e-mail message with a phone call - or, better, call
first and ask to be added to the “friends” list of addresses allowed
through the spam filter.
Using your employer’s assets to job hunt at work.
Again, it may cost you your job, if you have one, by inappropriately
using company assets (the computer and software you use, even your
Internet connection), by violating the company Internet “acceptable
use” policy, and/or simply by revealing to your employer that you are
job hunting.
Using your company e-mail address won’t impress a future employer with
your loyalty or trustworthiness, and, if you do lose your job, you
will lose access to your e-mail address and account.
This applies even if you do your job hunting outside of your normal
work hours, during lunch, or during some other authorized “personal”
time.
Not leveraging the extensive Internet research resources to find
potential employers or to stand out from the crowd with a resume and
cover letter customized to the employer.
Use the Internet to identify potential employers, evaluate them, and
contact them. Customize your resume and cover letter based on your
research, and then dazzle them in the interview with your insight into
their products and services, their market, their competitors, etc.
Company Websites, even the bad ones, are fabulous sources of
information about a company. So are financial research sites, PR
distribution sites, and even online phone directories.
Forgetting an e-mail message may be providing an employer with that
all-important first impression.
Using a crazy, cute, or weird e-mail address (e.g. “satanworshiper@yahoo.com”
or “2cute2btrue@hotmail.com”) undermines your credibility and almost
guarantees a message will be deleted or ignored.
Sending a virus-laden “surprise” with your e-mailed resume.
An e-mail message containing a virus is usually quarantined and
deleted. It’s not viewed! And, it leaves a very bad impression of the
intelligence, computer-skills, and Internet-savvy of the sender. Buy
and use anti-virus software, and keep it up to date! Microsoft Word
documents, a popular format for resumes, are often virus “carriers,”
so they are frequently viewed as potential threats and stopped or
deleted without being opened, even if they are apparently virus-free.
Expecting someone else to do the work (the job sites, a recruiter,
your outplacement counselor, etc.).
A job hunt is a do-it-yourself project! No one is as interested in
your future as you are, and no one else knows what you want as well as
you do.
Finding a job is hard work - the Internet didn’t make it easier, it
made it more complicated!
When you have identified a position that you want and submitted an
online application, follow up! Contact the employer or recruiter
directly yourself, via telephone as well as e-mail. Passive job
seekers get left behind in the current market.
Forgetting that a personal resume Web page/portfolio is a business
document.
Yes, you can make a razzle-dazzle resume Web page, but... Yellow
letters on a dark navy blue background may look great to you, but your
resume probably won’t be very legible when printed (and it will be
printed some time). The animated pooping bull or the fluttering
butterflies may amuse your friends, but it probably won’t impress many
employers unless they are relevant to the job opportunity.
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