Career Victory: Get What You Want in a Turbulent Economy

Which celebrity would you take career advice from?

Oprah

Donald Trump

Hugh Hefner

Madonna

Getting poll results. Please wait...

Show Results

You'd think the Internet would make job hunting easier. But for many, it's just another black hole where applications and resumes disappear forever. Certainly, cyberspace wasn't helping participants who gathered for a job-search clinic in a windowless hotel meeting room in Westchester, N.Y.

According to one former accountant at the meeting, at least 75% of the 245,000 listings on one top job-search site are generic job postings from temporary service firms and recruiters, not actual openings.

"I put my resume on Monster.com, HotJobs.com and a few others just to try it out," John confessed. "All I've had is some pitches from resume services and a 9 a.m. interview that turned out to be a group offer to me and 25 others to learn the ropes of financial planning. No real jobs." Adds a middle-aged woman: "One site advertises it has over 20 million resumes on file; mine has been posted for a year. Who knows where it is now?" Marcus on the other hand said: ”If you expect an automated job offer to come through you are bound to be disappointed. I searched a number of sites and then culled out several viable opportunities. This gave me a lot of insight about how to frame my resume and what salary range was relevant to several specific types of position. I did get response from two potential jobs and they were worth considering but I waited a bit too long. However I learned what to emphasize and it helped me land the job I found on Craig’s List right in my own backyard.

“Nodding sympathetically, the clinic leader shows a chart indicating that although the electronic databases like JobBiz with local orientation were far more successful than the monster national services, the largest percentage of those who found new positions used the job banks and enhanced their approach by extensive networking, some personal and much from their connections to Linkedin and Facebook and other social networks.”There are no shortcuts, And there are lots of resources" she tells the group.

This article will give you pointers on how to set yourself apart from the masses, of other job hunters, and create a unique opportunity for yourself by strategically using the internet.

Friend or Foe?

Which of these statements is true?

1. Internet recruiting has forever changed the job-search process.
2. The digital job search is hopeless. Career changing is still a step-by-step exercise. You must locate opportunities, attract interviews and negotiate for the best offer.

The answer is both. By using the Internet, you'll get a lot of help in your job search and expand your reach and prospects. But you can't forego doing the basics just because an Internet vendor has promised to make your search quick and easy.

So how can you sift through the rubble and mine career gold from the digital universe? By using the right tools, you can master the internet and make it your ally. Don't just use the highly marketed job-search services; try other resources like alumni services, trade groups, chambers of commerce and those that focus on specific specialties. Also work with the professional networking sites like LinkedIn and the social sites: MySpace, FaceBook and more.

 

Some Guidelines

Plan on putting as much effort into your electronic job search as you would into an important research project. With an accurate map and strategy, you can find what you need to pin down a good job in the right place. Some pointers:
 

• The Internet can be overwhelming, depending on how you browse. Take charge by first clarifying the information you want. Save, digest or bookmark useful information or sites you discover so you can return easily.
• Focus on your strengths and personal preferences. Think about the skills and accomplishments of which you're most proud, jobs you've held and the functions you've performed or could. What work style, schedule and income do you want? What values and life style are important to you? Keep these answers in the forefront while you search. The quality of your results will reflect the quality of your preparation.
• Start with your current situation. Are you happily employed? Bored with your current position? Worried about or preparing to be laid off? Expecting family needs to change, out of work and wanting to reinvent your future or primarily focused on surviving? Each situation creates emotions that can increase or decrease your desire to job hunt. Impatience, for example, can cause you to move too quickly in the wrong direction. Having to go back and start again can be discouraging. What are your special circumstances?
• Regardless of technological advances, basic job-finding strategies haven't changed. Taking a new shortcut, such as mass e-mailing your resume, will be unproductive and frustrating. Just like in Las Vegas, playing more numbers doesn't make you a winner. Even with gigantic databases you still need to take a highly focused approach.

Remember these principles:

Principle 1: Any employer will hire any individual as long as the employer is convinced that hiring him or her will bring more value than it costs. This is the "Universal Hiring Rule", and should remind you that by focusing on the value you can deliver into specific opportunities you leverage your impact greatly. Also, it’s not always the most qualified people to get the best jobs; it’s often the people that learn how to communicate that value most clearly.

Principle 2: Translate your skills and values into high-quality career targets before you start the search. With specific targets in mind, your work in finding and landing the right opportunities is easier because you know what to avoid.

Principle 3: Distinguish between your “employability”   and your “marketability”. Employability is how well you do a specific job: skills, experience, education. Employability emphasizes that you will stack up well against people who are in competition for that particular type of position. Your marketability is a measure of how much versatility and flexibility you show in rearranging or recasting your skills, strengths and experience, so that you can compete in a variety of positions. The key to building your marketability is to Couple your specific skills with certain “qualities” (creativity, persistence, learning on-the-fly, willingness to exhibit a “can-do” attitude.) it is the combination of skills, talent, values, qualities and aspirations that builds your marketability.

Leveraging the Internet for Maximum Results

Learn to use the Internet to access the hidden job market and locate unpublished opportunities. The key research targets would include: information about the specifics within the field of your job targets, names of companies and people to contact or network with, parallel and alternate positions that fit within the wider horizon of what you are seeking. Here's how to expand your job choices and connect with people who can influence the hiring decision:

1. Start with specific job targets in mind. Trying to find opportunities in the vast national job market without having specific targets is a waste of time. General categories won't give you the focus you need. Remember, job targets are found where your skills and interests intersect. Once you identify these targets, find different ways to describe them.
   
   Use a variety of local community and noncommercial job-search services on the Internet to identify the kind of work situations you want. A work situation may just be an opportunity to do some research, to redo a web site or to help prepare a product launch. Part time projects and temp assignments are ways to make an impact, demonstrate value and establish a relationship without a big commitment on either party.
2. Identify locations where you want to live and work. To embark on a national search when you won't leave California is another time-waster. Your most important search parameter is where you want to live. Choose several locations if you wish, so long as they're real options - and even if a company won't pay for relocation.
3. Get the names of ALL the employers - public and private -- in each location, whether or not they have posted jobs. This will give you a big advantage. It's also easy. On your search engine, enter the location and the words "business directory," "laboratory," "small business directory" or similar term. For instance, the term, "Memphis Business Directory" returns a lot of information about a variety of directories, associations and lists of active employers in that community. This list of companies is the hidden job market in your desired location area and a good foundation for your personalized job-finding expedition.
4. Find out more about organizations that appeal to you, regardless of whether they have advertised openings. Know their competitors, industry, products and financial condition, as well as their mission, values and relationships to the community. This information is easy to locate on line.
   
   There are many places to conduct research: you can review journals, products, agencies, affiliations, directories, suppliers, "Who's Who" listings, investment research groups, industry publications and more. Check www.vault.com for a bulletin board on the company or industry you're targeting. Although gossipy, these boards offer insights into a firm's hiring policies and culture.

Identify people in your target fields who might be known to you or can be introduced by someone you know. Use referral contacts for gathering information and ideas about the field or the companies in the field. Read trade journals to find out what’s happening.

5. Get up-close and personal. Check the companies' Web sites for job postings. If you find a listing that matches or relates to your qualifications, don't respond immediately; first find a way to meet face-to-face with someone who can make or influence the hiring decision, or bring you up to date on the potential employer.

6. Create your own job. If there's no defined opening for you, make one: make a diagram about what you already know about the firm and explore how you could make a contribution (growth, recovery, turnaround, bailout, merger). Send an e-mail to someone who could benefit from your problem-solving or energetic commitment and ask if you can meet to explore how you could add value to this area. Be sure the resume you present is organized to reflect these.

Figuring out how a company can use your skills, even before it knows of you, and selling this idea is called job creation - and it's a powerful driver of the U.S. economy. You can create a job for yourself when you clearly understand how to help an enterprise accomplish something challenging. You must determine what benefit you offer, and then develop and deliver the case for hiring you to the right person. Opportunity develops where you can show value (see Principles 1 and 2 above). By using hidden job-market concepts, you step out of the fray of mass competition and into a world of unique opportunity.

Clearly, the internet has forever changed the job-search process. However, you still need to do the work to discover what sets you apart from other job seekers, identify the targeted opportunities you want to pursue, attract interviews and negotiate the best offer. The internet is a powerful tool at your disposal.

By using the recommendations mentioned in this article, you will be better equipped to master the internet job universe.