Why the Internet Is Ruining Your Job Search

And how to work around it to find your next job, from Work It!: How to Get Ahead, Save Your Ass, and Land a Job in Any Economy, by Allison Hemming

Surfing the web for jobs can waste hours of precious job search time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of job postings and start applying to anything and everything you see, whether it’s right for you or not. Do this and you’ll only wind up with the job seeker’s variety of “eBay Syndrome,” a condition resulting from prolonged web exposure that causes otherwise normal people to lose their ability to distinguish between quality and crap. It may seem logical to think, “I’ll never get an offer from just one job posting, so why not up my odds and apply to one hundred?” But you’re only kidding yourself. Applying to every posting that pops onto your monitor doesn’t increase your chances of finding a job. All it does is waste your time and add to the overall noise level of mismatched jobs and job seekers. Instead, set specific criteria for your search before you hop online, and focus on jobs that match those criteria. Before you log on, establish boundaries and be honest about your own requirements, such as salary range and responsibilities. When you start to look at postings, avoid those for jobs that are too senior or junior. Don’t waste your time, or the company’s, by responding to postings that are geographically undesirable to you. Pay particular attention to the minimum qualifications for the job; don’t apply if you don’t meet them. By analyzing each job posting closely rather than gratuitously zapping off a resume for it, you’ll fine-tune your expectations without wasting your precious time, or other people’s.

If you discover an online posting that isn’t right for you but are seriously interested in working at that particular company, don’t just apply for the job. Instead, send an email or letter to the hiring manager listed in the posting. In it, introduce yourself and tell them that you saw the job description, and that although you’re not a fit for the position, you’re very interested in working at their company. Let them know that you would love to be contacted if a position that matches your skills becomes available and be sure to highlight what those skills are. The personnel manager will appreciate that you didn’t waste their time by applying for a position for which you’re not qualified and you might just get a call down the road.

Big Board Battle Plan
Each day, hundreds of jobs are posted on the Big Boards — Monster.com, HotJobs.com, and CareerBuilder.com. Given the huge number of companies featured and range of positions offered, it’s only natural that the first stop on your journey toward finding new employment would be the Big Boards. The larger online job boards have made their sites incredibly easy to navigate and have invested in superior web technology and tools to help you find what you’re seeking. They also allow you to check out the supply of jobs in your industry and their salary levels, helping you to determine your market value. The downside of the Big Boards is that because they’re so popular, they are also the first stop for thousands of other job seekers (your competition).

This isn’t to say that you should avoid using the Big Boards. But you need to be smart about how you use them. At the outset of your job hunt, get to know the unique features that each Big Board has to offer. They each do things slightly differently. Sometimes you’ll find the same jobs posted on all of the Big Boards, while other times you’ll find positions that are unique to each. The range of positions available on the Big Boards is so vast that it pays to devote equal time to all of them.

Here are some tips for optimizing your time on the Big Boards.

• SET UP A PERSONAL ACCOUNT. All of the Big Boards allow you to create your own account (i.e., MyHotJobs or My Monster). Once you set up a personal account, the board enables you to save a version of your resume that’s quite easy to email. This feature allows you to apply to jobs easily by sending a pre-formatted resume that will look good to a hiring manager.

• WATCH YOUR BACK. Don’t forget: hiring companies pay fees to the job boards to review the resumes that job seekers have saved there. So be careful if you’re looking for work while otherwise employed — you don’t want your current boss to spot your resume when they’re doing a search for talent. There are blocking and confidentiality tools that can help, but if you know that your current company uses a certain Big Board regularly, you might want to think twice about opting to let the public view your resume.

• HANDLE WITH CARE. When you set up your personal job board account, you’ll often get a special email address specific to that board. It’s essential to choose an email address or “handle” that identifies you in a professional manner and won’t confuse the hiring manager. The safest bet is to choose a version of your name such as JamesJSmith@monster.com. Alternatively, you could select an email address that identifies the type of job you’re applying for, e.g., graphicdesignmaven@hotjobs.com. If the board requires you to choose a “display name” (the “real” name displayed alongside the email address), be simple and use your own name; this is not the time to get cute. A clear and professional email address will enable a hiring manager to find your resume quickly in their clogged inbox.

• USE ADVANCED SEARCH TOOLS. The Big Boards have sunk millions into thinking up new ways to slice and dice the jobs they list. Instead of searching for jobs by title, consider using some of the search tools the job boards have added to their sites. Try keywords that you think match your background. For example, if you’re a web designer, you might type “web design” under the keyword search. In addition, try keying in specific skills you think an employer would want you to have for that position (in the case of a web designer, knowledge of Flash, Photoshop, or Java). You’ll be surprised to see completely different yet relevant postings pop up.

• LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. If you’re looking for work near a particular city, your first inclination might be simply to type the city name into the search. But wait: if you only search this way you might not find out about suitable jobs in the surrounding region. For example, say you want to work in Boston. If you type simply “Boston, MA” into the search engine, you might miss out on a great job opportunity based in Cambridge, MA, or Newton, MA — two important Beantown suburbs teeming with small, dynamic companies. If you’re interested in relocating to an unfamiliar city, it’s worth it to invest in a map to figure out what nearby cities you would be willing to work in. To do your search, stay broad and start by searching under the state instead of the city. Don’t forget that many major metro areas cross state lines. For example, if your goal is to live in Princeton, New Jersey, you’d be in the range of both the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas. On your search, you would look up a total of three states: Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Most of the Big Boards are incorporating “search metro area” capabilities into their sites, but since searching is never an exact science, it’s still a good idea to try the tips above.

• TIMING IS EVERYTHING. Sort search results by the most recent date of posting and concentrate on those posted within the last week or two. Postings older than that are quite likely either to be filled or no longer needed; unfortunately, pulling obsolete postings off the boards does not seem to be a top priority for busy recruiters.

• KEEP TRACK OF HIRING AND PERSONNEL MANAGERS. The real key to a successful job search is building a contact database of real live human beings who can help you in your quest for a new job. Job boards are one place to find such contacts. After you respond to a job posting in which you’re truly interested, keep track of all contact information for the H.R. representative listed. If possible, find out what other types of jobs that person recruits for. You will find that at large companies in particular, different personnel managers handle different departments. Be diligent about keeping a list of all the people you contact via online job postings, as well as the dates on which you contacted them. Sometimes, companies will list only an anonymous email address like jobs@bigcompany.com. Other times, however, you’ll get lucky and find a direct email address, either for an internal hiring manager or an outside recruiter. Just don’t use someone’s email address as one more place to dump a generic resume; keep your communications relevant to the recipients’ needs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Hemming, author of Work It!: How to Get Ahead, Save Your Ass, and Land a Job in Any Economy (Copyright © 2003 by Allison Hemming), is the founder of The Hired Guns, an interim workforce agency. She lives in New York City.

MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR

• Being Downsized 101
• How to Be Successfully Unemployed
• How to Sneak Out of Work Without Getting Caught and Other Job-Search Tips
• The Armchair Millionaire’s Guide to Negotiating Your Employment Package
• The Tao of Interviewing: 12+ Tips to Help You Land the Job

LEARN MORE

• Read Chapter 1, “Get Out of Your Own Way: Diversify, and Get the Job You Really Want,” from Work It!
• Read the book’s Introduction