Jobs @ Career Consulting Limited
Return to career-consulting-limited.com
People |
|
|
 |
4 Internet Job Search Mistakes to Avoid
The Internet is the most powerful employment tool on earth. Hands down. With the Web, you can access millions of job openings on thousands of sites. With email, you can quickly contact employers and ask for interviews. Yet, if used incorrectly, the Internet can actually prevent you from being as productive as possible in your search for work. How? Why? Here are four mistakes that commonly befall job seekers using the Internet. Avoid them, and get hired faster. 1) Don't Email Your Resume Wrong I've written before (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1416/4371900.html) on how to create a text version of your resume for emailing to employers. Because not everybody has Word or WordPerfect, the only way to be sure employers can read your resume is to email them a version in plain old ASCII text. Make sure the resume you email looks good upon arrival, with no funny line breaks or garbage in the text. How? Use yourself and at least two friends as guinea pigs. It's easy. Practice formatting and emailing your resume to yourself and others. Open the email. How does your resume look? Good? Good. Garbage? Reformat and repeat until your resume goes through cleanly every time. 2) Don't Forget The Email Cover Letter When emailing your resume to employers, don't dash off email cover letter as an afterthought or, worse, fail to include one. Treat email as you would postal mail -- always email a solid cover letter with your resume. Your cover letter has many functions. Chief among them are telling the reader what job you're applying for, where you learned of the job, and your specific qualifications for doing it. And don't get sloppy with tone or punctuation in email cover letters. You're not banging out an instant text message to buddies. You're writing a letter to the person you want to work for. There's a difference. 3) Don't Be Passive It's easy to sit back and wait for postings to appear on the big job sites, like Monster. But if you confine yourself to this passive technique, you're missing out. That's because most jobs are filled by employers before they're ever advertised online or in the newspaper. By some accounts, this figure is as high as 80%. So it pays to be proactive -- use the Internet to get into the heads of hiring managers before they pay for a job posting online. An easy way to do this is to use a networking Web site, such as Linkedin.com or Ryze.com. At Linkedin.com, for example, you can search profiles of 1,214,000 registered users (as of this writing) to find people who went to your school, have the same hobbies, live near you, etc. You can also find out where these people work -- and this is critical. Because, once you find and contact someone who shares an affinity with you, and works in the company or industry you want to work in, you can make valuable connections that lead to interviews and job offers. Tip: never approach networking as a one-way street. You become road-kill and get ignored that way. Instead, give back to the people you meet, online or off, before expecting them to favor you with job leads. You must prime the pump before you get anything out. 4) Don't Forget Who Really Hires Throughout history, there is no record of any person ever being hired by a computer. It's people who hire people. Yet, some folks spend days or weeks searching for jobs online without ever meeting a hiring authority face to face. This is a mistake that happens when you confuse process with results. Using the Internet to find a job is a process. The results you want are a job. At some point, you have to get off the Internet, get off your duff, and go shake hands with live humans. Never lose sight of this. That's what it all boils down to, doesn't it? To get hired, you have to meet and impress a living, breathing employer. Go do it! Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1996, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, CBS Radio, and many others.
MORE RESOURCES: Careers Oaktree Capital Meet Native American Veterans where they live with a VA career VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs Careers | Career Opportunities West Virginia University Corporate Lowe's I moved to Alaska after college for a job. I lost all my friends because I put my career first. Business Insider Jobs City of Rochester (.gov) 15 Companies Offering Health Insurance to Part-Time Workers U.S News & World Report Money Careers at TWU Texas Woman's University Careers at FEMA FEMA Careers at Willamette my.willamette.edu Physicians are the nation’s top earners – a slideshow Medical Economics Jobs and Training at FDA FDA.gov Jobs at Liberty University Liberty News City of Tampa Careers City of Tampa Careers at VA VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs Job Seekers University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Healthcare Jobs at Novant Health | Novant Health Novant Health Careers BASF Careers at University of Missouri Health Care | University of Missouri Health Care jobs University of Missouri Health Care MPP Employment Data USC Sol Price School of Public Policy Nursing jobs VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs Career Opportunities UMHB Jobs at BCA Minnesota Department of Public Safety Statement by Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su on October jobs report US Department of Labor Careers at Union | Human Resources Union College Careers West Virginia Department of Education Careers Washington State University Employment Services American Mathematical Society Recruiters urge candidates to use AI to apply for jobs Financial Times US employers added just 12,000 jobs last month as hurricanes and strikes sharply reduce payrolls The Associated Press Working for ICE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Newsroom Work at DHS: Career Opportunities Wisconsin Department of Health Services Employment Statistics Columbia SIPA October 2024 jobs report: How two major hurricanes, labor strike might affect the numbers - NBC News UF Health Careers UF Health - University of Florida Health Employment benefits VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs Work for Us (U.S. National Park Service) National Park Service Careers at Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University Job Search Results UnitedHealth Group UN COMMON CAREERS VCU Health Work With Us National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Career Opportunities Gilead Sciences Employment | Department of Corrections Governor Tom Wolf Careers S&P Global Careers Medline Reservists (On-Call) FEMA Job Opportunities Bellevue School District How to Apply FEMA Job Opportunities Southwest Minnesota State University DOE Report Shows Clean Energy Jobs Grew at More Than Twice the Rate of Overall U.S. Employment Energy.gov Careers Micron Careers at Discovery Education Discovery Education Jobs report on eve of election will be among the most muddled in years The Associated Press Join our team FHI 360 Careers KPMG Early Career GlobalFoundries Certified Direct Care Professional (CDCP) Wisconsin Department of Health Services Careers The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation Internship Opportunities | Careers Boston Consulting Group What Trump's election victory means for job seekers Business Insider Jobs and internships at ABC7 Los Angeles ABC7 Los Angeles Careers at Jacobs Jacobs Careers in A&O Shearman Careers UNICEF USA Students and graduates JPMorgan Chase Work At Chess.com Chess.com Highest-Paying Engineering Careers in 2024 University of North Dakota Mental health at work World Health Organization The 10 jobs that landed the biggest pay rises in financial year 2024 The Australian Financial Review How many jobs are available in technology in the US? Computerworld Benefits for the whole you Accenture |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
You Should Interview the Interviewer, Too I know what you are thinking. You're thinking, "Wait a minute. The Ripple Effect of Fear Unemployment carries a lot of emotional baggage for most of us and fear is a major component. We fear the financial fallout of no longer receiving regular wages. Networking Masterclass - Part 2 Practicing Altruism Practicing Altruism The 'Golden Rule' occurred in the Greek and Chinese cultures thousands of years before the Christian era: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The spirit of the Golden Rule is one of generosity and altruism and is at the heart of any personal networking and 'right' living. Work In Dubai Dubai is home to an exciting, diverse, multi-cultural blend of young, dynamic and professional people all enjoying the unrivalled quality of life the Emirate has to offer. It is of absolutely no surprise therefore that Dubai has the fastest growing population in the world. Spiritual Practices Offer Peace and Acceptance Facing career transitions and daily life challenges can leave us feeling lonely, stressed and anxious. How do we manage to deal with the financial and emotional stress of having a home, a car, work (or no work), kids and a spouse in this too-busy world?Spiritual practices can help us navigate through the turmoil of work and life transitions with more acceptance and peace. How To Create A Winning Impression In Your New Job Congratulations! You've just been appointed to your new job. Now the real work begins. Your Salary: What Are You Worth? Why is it a good idea to determine your worth? Whether you plan to stay at your current job or seek employment elsewhere, your assessment of your worth can become a bargaining chip should you choose to negotiate for higher compensation. It's a reference point on your way to improving not only your standard of living but your sense of self as well. When Should You Update Your Job Skills? With the U.S. Common Résumé Mistakes Using a general résumé.DON'T DO IT! You cannot successfully use the same résumé to apply to several different jobs. Tips for Requesting a Raise You probably think you deserve a raise. But does your boss think so?Here's how to go about convincing your boss that you're really worth more than you're being paid. Networking Masterclass - Part 1 - Practicing Empathy Practicing Empathy A vital part of your networking skills is your ability to build rapport quickly and effectively with others. To build rapport successfully with another individual you need to understand 'where' they are coming from and have 'empathy' with them. Analysing Adverts for the Creative Response The fundamental rule is: if you are going to apply for advertised jobs then only apply for the right ones. Don't waste time by applying for the ones you've no chance of getting; not only is your time lost but your morale will suffer if you keep getting rejections. What is My Calling? "What is my calling?" Do any of us really have complete clarity about our life calling? Even those of us with the knowingness we must teach, write or sing may often ask, "What direction am I to go, now?" How do we answer these soulful questions?Richard Bolles, author of "What Color is My Parachute?" and the granddaddy of the employment industry says, when people are asked what they would like to do they often respond with "I don't know." Bolles maintains this is because people interpret the question to be "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"This question is too big, too daunting, immobilizing people. Youre Fired! One-day you're minding your own business and your boss comes in and says "You're Fired", perhaps he was a bit more polite than that but the end result was the same, you're now out of work!!Now what do you do?Well get over the initial shock and look at the whole experience as a positive, this maybe the break you have been waiting for, no more excuses for not doing what you've always wanted to do, that is too work for yourself and if that's not what you always wanted to do, it is now, because you may not have any other choice.Okay, just got the sack and now suddenly thrust into the world of the entrepreneur! What next? First thing is to think about what you have been doing that actually had someone paying you previously to do it. Searching for Jobs Online Searching for jobs online is easier than ever, but also more confusing than ever. Any Internet user doing a job search online will find that they can choose from hundreds of national employment listing web sites and the numbers can often be staggering. Are You In A Groove Or A Rut? Ruts: the routines in our work and lives that have become uninteresting and bothersome.Everyone has a favorite rut or two. Medical Billing And Coding Profession Medical billers and coders are in high demand among the allied health occupations. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), health information technicians are one of the 10 fastest-growing allied health occupations. Get Your Dream Job! Anyone who is a jobseeker knows that looking for a new job or career is a job in itself. Once you have completed the laborious task of writing your resume and submitting it to various companies, you now have to pass the screen test to get the job. Finding Success In Todays Job Market This year we are experiencing the most dynamic and rapidly changing economy in all of history except for next year, and the year after, and the rest of our working lives. The days of being able to get a college education, then get a good job for life, which will give you financial security and retirement are gone forever. Thank-You Notes: Your Thoughtfulness will be Rewarded I get asked these questions over and over: "Should I send separate thank-you notes to everyone who interviewed me? Can I just send one thank-you note to the hiring manager and ask him/her to thank others involved in the process?"The answers are yes and no, respectively.Send a separate thank-you note to everyone who interviewed you, whether it was an informal pre-interview phone call, an interview lunch meeting, or the final formal interview after a lengthy process.
|
|
|
| © Career Consulting Limited.com 2011
|