Websites & Classifieds - How to use your team to Swim up River

Fighting The Bits

Yes, people get jobs by filling out online forms. People also win the lottery. While you are more likely to strike it rich by filling out an online job form than scratching your Lucky 5 Lotto, that doesn't make the odds exactly worthwhile. The fact is, most people get jobs through personal referrals or introductions. Part of the reason may be unfair - it's hard to get in somewhere where you don't know people. But the main reason is just practical. HR professionals need a way to make decisions and the internet allows literally an infinite number of people to click online and submit their qualifications. Problem is, it's just way too much information to read. So a typical manager waits to be spoon fed a resume from someone s/he trusts. They realize this leads not necessarily to the best candidate, but it merely makes the process manageable. It's not uncommon to receive hundreds, even thousands of resumes to a job posting. Those hiring can only read a few. So the long and short of it, is you have to stand out from the crowd, find out how to be spoon feed that job selctor. And don't fight the infinite bits.

While the odds are slim of landing a job via a nameless entry in some website's Skills for Sale section or print classifieds, they are worth studying. Such listings provide a great resource, noting areas of opportunity, companies that are hiring, and of business language to use in your own search materials. Scan the type of ads in each listing with a Goldilocks eye: nothing near your field is too cold; a million similar ads makes the competition too hot. On the fringe is just right.

Alas, there is no reigning job source the way there used to be. HR pros in Kansas no longer cull the New York Times trolling for top talent.
Good old fashion print classifieds do indeed work, but only if you place the add within the papers targeted readership. Increasingly, print is read mostly locally or by professional groups browsing their specific trade journals. There may not be a great demand for sales managers in your town, but a goodly percentage of folks read the local paper, and even find the classifieds intriguing.

Make the Pond Smaller

Websites open up everything to the entire planet and by that reason make focus impossible. Tis often a matter of too much information. Professional websites, at the state, regional and national often have classifieds. they certainly seem more targeted than putting your resume in a blottle and casting it adrift onto Monster.com.