Five Tips to Consider When Using Job Boards to Find Employment
The use of job boards such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Indeed.com, and Simply Hired.com has become the job search strategy of choice for many people. While these sites can be helpful in finding work, there are a variety of things to keep in mind when deciding to use one or more of them.
- Job boards are probably one of the least efficient ways to find a great job. If you set up automatic e-mail alerts when jobs become available that fit your interest, there are often an overwhelming number of announcements to review, most of which do not really interest you. This process works best when you set up a highly specific keyword search when registering for the e-mail alerts. However this approach often does not meet the needs of job seekers who have broader search interests.
- Avoid uploading your résumé if at all possible. Most job boards will take the information and create a template résumé to standardize the presentation of information for easier use by employers. However, the templates often butcher the résumé narrative and the end result is a disjointed and difficult to read document. Another reason not to upload your résumé is because there are unscrupulous people who will use your information for not so honorable purposes. Your privacy is important, so take steps to protect it by not uploading your resume to job board sites. Directly apply for positions that interest you, so that you can send your résumé as it is and have better control over your information overall.
- Consider using niche job boards in your search for work. These sites are focused toward specific industries and career paths, so your search will be more manageable and prospective employers will be able to find you a bit easier. Some examples of niche sites are USAJOBS.gov for federal government employment, Dice.com for technology work, and Naturejobs.com for science jobs.
- Do not focus all of your efforts on finding employment through job boards. Most effective job search campaigns will incorporate multiple strategies to find job leads from a range of sources. For example, ABC reported in 2012 that 80% of jobs secured by people were gotten through networking. If anything, this figure has gone up since that time. Therefore, networking needs to be a primary element of any job search campaign.
- Do not just set up your job board e-mail alerts and then be a passive player. Evaluate the results regularly to determine the effectiveness of announcements coming into your e-mail. If your e-mail alerts are not getting you the job postings you expected, change your keywords or even try a different site to see if the results improve. Being an active participate in your own job search campaign is critical.
It is important to keep in mind that job boards are just one of many tools to use in landing a great job. Finding a nice balance in using job boards, networking, and other approaches is the best overall job search strategy.
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