Digital Job Hunting 2.0
By Christopher M. Woo
Smashwords Edition
©2012 Christopher M. Woo
All Rights Reserved. Published 2012.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
Find out more about my upcoming books online at
http://www.digitaljobhunting.com
Table of Contents
What will you need to get started?
How to "Search" for Jobs Online
Setting up RSS Feeds for Job Searches
Organizing and Viewing Your Job Feeds
Introduction
Let’s face it: If there was some magical technique, some guaranteed trick that would get you that callback on your resume, you’ve already read the book, attended the course, and watched the instructional video. You’ve received countless tips from family, friends, colleagues, coaches and strangers. You’ve reinvented your resume. You’ve rehearsed your elevator speech. You’ve carefully crafted clever answers to the world's toughest interview questions. And yet that phone remains stubbornly silent and your inbox woefully devoid of replies.
"I can get the job," I hear you say. "Just get me in front of the hiring manager and I can get the job!" But how do you get singled out in a crowded field of everyone else using the same techniques as you? Well, unless you are singularly qualified in your field ("I am the only person in the world who can weave baskets underwater with my toes!") and there happens to be a sudden crushing demand for your unique qualifications, it’s likely you’ll be competing with hundreds, if not thousands of applicants for one opportunity. The odds of your resume being on the top of the pile, being read by a human, and making the first cut aren’t good, especially if you are hunting in a market that is impacted by economic hardship, or flooded with qualified applicants, or, even worse, by both.
How do you change those odds? By taking a bit of wisdom from athletes, photographers, and yes, salespeople: "Shoot more often." In other words, apply to more jobs, and more importantly, apply to more jobs faster. Why should it matter? This will help you visualize:
Imagine a 3 X 3 grid on a wall, and on that grid are three copies of your resume, taped randomly somewhere in that grid. The recruiter is standing across from the grid with a dart in her hand and a blindfold on. She’s good enough at darts to hit the grid every time, even blindfolded, but it’s random where in the grid her dart will land. Sometimes she hits your resume, sometimes a blank spot. Before each throw, the grid is cleared, and the resumes are taped up randomly again. You don’t have to be a statistician (or even good at math!) to know that if you can get 4 resumes on the grid, your chances of getting targeted by the recruiter have increased for every throw. What does this mean? The more applications you have out, the more chances you have of getting a call back, and the more opportunities you have to get your chance to get in front of that hiring manager. But there’s another, even better reason for applying to more jobs, which speaks to the "faster" imperative mentioned above.
What’s better than a job offer? How about two job offers? Or multiple job offers? This is the ideal position in which any candidate wants to be. And you can only achieve this situation if you are filling up that grid as much as humanly possible. If you are a fan of baseball, you know that base hits, more so than home runs, win games, and you want to get as many "at-bats" as possible during your search, to maximize your chances at getting a base hit, and yes, the occasional home run.