According to Knowledge@Wharton, “On the one hand are job seekers who submit hundreds of applications online with little effort, but also with little hope of receiving a response. On the other hand are companies, inundated with resumes, that resort to blunt-edged tracking systems to quickly weed out candidates, including potentially qualified ones who don’t conform to established criteria.”
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The article focuses too much on searching for a job by job boards and company web sites. I am searching for a job. I applied to one on CareerBuilder and was told that I was the 821st person to apply for that job. That gives me almost no chance.
A great deal of the time, I use social media to help me. Social media is an amazing tool. It’s almost impossible to imagine the great things that can happen if you use it properly. For instance, I write a blog on management, economics, and finance. It’s important to have it become popular so I use social media to do it. I get, without a lot of followers, well known people to ReTweet, or resend, my work on Twitter. How? I simply show an interest in their work. When it comes time to publicize my work, it is easily done by those I have become friends with on social media.
I also have a great coach who has me taking a targeted approach by sending my resume directly to executives and then following up.
If you are searching for a job, be careful about where you spend your time. Consider expanding the methods you use to find a job.
Henry Motyka
Hofstra BBA
Our HireInsider report is to alert job seekers to how many other people are out there in the market and why it’s so important to build up your own personal brand and identify the ways in which you are unique to every other applicant.
The days of just submitting a generic resume to multiple jobs no longer serves job seekers or employers, with the latter being inundated with applicants who many not even be qualified but are just attempting to apply for anything that’s out there.
Great point on social media, Henry. It’s good that job seekers diversify their time and efforts in the job search and not just use the scattershot method of applying, but investigate and connect with companies in all ways possible.