Preparation & Career Management

Is there a best-practice for Internet-based job hunting?

Hi Wendii,

For me the biggest question in the problem of "How to search for a job" is the very act of "searching".

One of the main routes I'm following to find a job is via online job websites. But I’ve come to realize that I am not very good at using these sites efficiently. I’ve discovered a few reasons for this, but sadly no solutions to improve myself, and I’m wondering if you could help.

My first problem is that I find the language used in online job ads to be very confusing. Reading the ads makes my mind go to jelly. (My jellied brain believes that some kinds of jobs are easy to describe, while others are not. e.g. "Wanted: Janitor. Requirements: Experience working with mops, brooms, and soap. Fearlessness towards cockroaches would be considered advantageous.") But for all I know the position of a janitor may be very nuanced, with multiple layers of skill requirements, different possible streams of past work experience, and a multiplicity of sought-after job qualifications.

In my own area, IT, this is certainly the case. I’ve frequently found the same or very similar jobs described in very different ways. Business Analysis suffers a lot from this descriptor-difficulty. Neither is the job title of any use in identifying the right job – the same job title is often applied to jobs that are vastly different. Look up “Team Lead” jobs, for example. And to add more treacle to my mental cogs, there’s a jumble of jargon used in job adverts (especially in IT jobs) and I get the feeling that much of the jargon is not really understood by the recruiters who write the adverts.

All this makes the job adverts themselves difficult for me to parse. In particular I find it hard to tell from the advert if it's a job that I would want to do.

The second area I struggle with is in the application process. Once I find a likely looking job, I write a cover letter and email it with my resume to the recruiter. A day or two later I phone the recruiter to make sure they've received my application. Invariably at this point one of three things happens to make me feel like I’m just wasting my time:
(a) the recruiter has not yet seen my email from a few days ago and so, while I'm on the phone, he finds, opens, and reads my email, hums and hah's a lot, and then tells me he'll get back to me – (this at least means that I’m one step closer to the interview, which is all I really want anyway, but it surprises me that my email hasn’t already been read);
(b) the recruiter tells me that interviewing for the position has already closed. Some recruitment agents are good at updating the websites about which jobs have already been placed, but many, many of them are not; or
(c) (and I admit that this one is my own failing) since penning my cover letter and application to the recruiter my brain has subconsciously been parsing the text of the advert and I suddenly realize that the job isn't at all what I'm interested in. I go ahead and phone the recruiter, but only to ask her to retract my resume.

Plainly I need help!

I’m struggling with two things here:
- First, my incompetence in poorly parsing the job adverts. How can I improve my ability to read, understand, and make connections between the descriptions of the requirements in the job advert and my own requirements of what I want to do.
- Second, the impersonal mechanisms of Internet-based recruiting. What can I do to mitigate being treated like a number? (My problem is further compounded by looking for a job in a new city, and so having only one pre-existing relationship with a recruiter - not enough I fear to find the right job.)

Wendii, Manager Tools, anyone… help?

Thanks as always for a very interesting blog!
Justin

Hi Justin,

Job searching is a lot like your basic sales funnel – you need lots and lots of leads at the beginning and gradually you narrow them down until you get one or two which sign up. So, when you’re using the job boards, you need to be looking at anything which is in your area of expertise, sounds remotely interesting, is a salary you could live with and is in an area you could commute to. You need to keep your options wide open at this point. If in doubt, rule in not out.

A bit like when you look for a house, where the real estate agent’s description is quite unlike the rooms you see, job ads tend to be written third hand and can vary from very accurate to only bearing a passing resemblance to the actual job. If it fits in your categories, apply. I have two reasons for this: one, you can’t get a job you don’t apply for. Two, like real estate, jobs can be surprising. You might find that that beautiful house in the nice neighborhood is only a façade and the inside has had everything removed including the shower door. On the other hand, you might find that the house you thought was too small, was brilliantly designed, is decorated to your taste and the neighbors have a hot tub they’d love you to use whilst they are away for 6 months. You won’t find out what the job is really like till you get to an interview, so your job at the moment is to get to the interview and find out about the hot tub.

I do understand how difficult it is – try looking for a job as a recruiter, and you get every job ad going, since every one is placed by a recruiter ☺. Your aim at this point though, is to be applying for lots of roles, because there is a relationship between applications:interviews:offers, which is different for everyone, but the number of offers is always lower than the number of interviews. When I was looking last (and it was a better economy than today) my aim was to make 10 applications a day. In order to do that, I had to be looking at job boards, company websites, newspapers, online news and so on. (By the way, job boards are expensive, so companies are switching the marjority of their advertising to their own websites at the moment so look for companies with bases in the town you want to go to, and start there).
As for your second area; some recruiters are rubbish. And, in this economy they have many more resumes than they are used to dealing with. Recruitment is a high turnover business, people either stay for a couple of years, aren’t that good and leave, or are very very good and stay forever. Because so many recruiters haven’t been through tough times before, they are finding it hard to cope.
The answer, I think, is to be pleasant, helpful, and tolerant, even if you don’t feel it. Yes, it’s annoying when someone hasn’t got to your email, but if you show that annoyance, you’re already damaging a fragile relationship. If he says I haven’t seen that yet, you could say for example: Shall I give you a quick summary of my experience and you can let me know if you think I’m a good fit for this role? (And of course give a summary which sounds as close to the job as it is possible to understand from the ad).

If they say the job has closed, you could ask them if there are any similar roles they know are upcoming which you could be considered for. Or again, say something like: Oh, that’s a shame. Can I give you a quick summary of my experience and you can let me know whether you generally have roles which might fit? Yes, you’re giving them a chance to say no, but you’re also getting a chance to continue the conversation in a positive way.

Hopefully, you got the idea from my comments above that c) is a bad idea ☺
Since you are in a new town, you need to work hard at building a network there too. With everyone you meet, give them the casual: Hey, I'm looking to get into X company or Y industry, do you know anyone who might be willing to talk to me about that?". If they say "No", then you can just say, "well, if you meet anyone who might, let me know". If you ask enough people, you'll find someone. There's a podcast on networking here: http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/05/building-a-network

I hope that helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Wendii

10 applications a day!!!! I

10 applications a day!!!! I must be doing something wrong because it takes me about 2 hours to customize my resume and cover letter for each job. On my resume I look at the job description and then pull bullet points that match what they're looking for. Then proof-reading, cover letter, proof-reading again. It takes SO LONG. Are most people not customizing resumes/cover letters?
 

Yes, really 10!

RGBIV99

I guess my situation was fairly specific - I was out of work, so home all day, with nothing else to do (I had no family nearby, nobody to care for but myself) - but once I set myself a goal of 10 I just made it happen.

One of things that helped, and goes to your point, is having 3 or 4 basis CVs. So I had one already tailored to inhouse recruiting, one tailored towards technical activities, one tailored towards administration and so on. So, when I saw a specific role, I was already part way there with the tailoring. Plus doing that many, I got fast quickly, because I had so much practice.

The other thing which helped was looking for local employers with lots of vacancies. Our health service is the biggest single employer in the country and they have a brilliant website where you only create your profile once, and then you can quickly tailor it each time you find a vacancy. I could find 5 a week on there easy, and that's 1/10th of my goal met.

I hope that helps,

Wendii

Thanks

That is helpful, thanks, Wendii!

Working full-time, I only have about 3 hours between getting home from work and going to sleep so 10 is too much of a challenge for me. : ) But I really like the idea of setting a goal for myself. Maybe one per day?

Also, it is getting getting easier with the more I send out. As Justin said, it's frustrating that there is no consistency between titles and job responsibilities. I'm building a file so that each job title has it's own resume ("Project Management Resume," "Operations Resume," etc.) and that is cutting down on customization (read: time) as I do more and more of them.

Kate

Like searching for a house - so true!

That makes it so clear - it *is* just like looking at real estate. Those darn property pages are always either euphamistic, over-exaggerated, or somehow just missing the point, the "hot tub" that makes it a winner spot. If I look at job ads with this perspective it'll make it a lot easier for me to "rule in not out".

Your 10-a-day puts my efforts to shame. But your example gives me a goal and a way to measure my progress. With my current work load, I'll consider myself doing well with 10 a week, and I'll try to up that as I get more efficient at it. And I'll certainly apply your advice about asking recruitment agents for other opportunities where they may see me as a match.

Like Kate, I'm also going to categorise my cover letters and resumes. This will be a big time saver. I find the customising part of the process to be the biggest bain - it almost puts me off applying because I worry that my hours of effort will amount to nothing.

Thanks once again Wendii! With all your tips here I feel far more excited about the process. Those recruiters better watch out - I'm going to be making a ton of applications now!

Best regards,
Justin

I'm glad it helped!

Let me know if there's anything we can do,

Wendii

Another question

I have another question for you all.

Some of the jobs that I've applied to online require the applicant to fill out a series of lengthy interview questions before they can submit their resume. I haven't applied for jobs in 5 years, so I don't know if this is the "norm" now or what.

In the same way that candidates think, "I'm perfect for that job," but they actually have no idea whether or not they're "perfect," it seems like employers could show you the courtesy of at least getting you through the initial round of resume review before subjecting you "take home" interviews.

If you've read my resume and want to know more, fine, I'm happy to answer any questions you have. But to make applicants provide written answers to 10 interview questions just to SUBMIT a resume? That seems thoroughly obnoxious to me. 

Is this a supply and demand thing because of the state of the economy or is this the new normal?

Kate