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Many Find Web Site Job Search Frustrating
from the it-ain't-easy dept
Coming from the employer side of the equation, I can say that the quantity of people who apply for jobs online is growing rapidly - and it's no surprise that many companies simply can't keep up with all the applications. I think this is more a product of the current economic times and job market. Many people applying for jobs today find themselves frustrated by the process of applying for jobs directly via corporate websites. They often have elaborate surveys they make potential applicants fill out - which then seem to disappear into thin air without the slightest response. Many companies are even employing automated systems to sort through the resumes. However, that allows for some odd results, as a consulting firm discovered when they created a fake (but amusing) applicant for a number of job systems. Of course, seeing some of the bizarre resumes and cover letters that make their way into our corporate inbox, it's no surprise that the fake resume didn't raise too many flags until it was far along in the process. While not stated in the article, I'd guess that many of the complex processes companies set up are mostly to weed out unqualified candidates who don't want to take the time to go through the process. An open resume solicitation leads to all sorts of unqualified (and downright odd) requests. In the end, as someone in the article points out, the best way to get your resume some attention is to network your way into the opportunity rather than submitting it blindly.
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Networking also backfires
Networking involves the elaborate pretense of making "friends" with people you don't really like, who will then refer you to jobs that may not suit your needs. The hiring manager for that job will get pissed off at receiving an inappropriate candidate and put you on his black list.
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Re: Networking also backfires
If that's your idea of networking, then you're doing it wrong.
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Re: Networking also backfires
Everybody does it wrong, but they are expected to point their fingers at people who have the courage to admit it doesn't work. If networking really worked, we wouldn't see networking clubs with people who keep showing up month after month.
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Re: Networking also backfires
I agree - networking is highly overhyped. I have spoken with counselers from 3 different outplacement firms, 3 community based jobsearch groups, and probably over 100 coworkers, friends and passing aquaintences. From this, I got a very different view of networking than how it's usually presented.
First, numbers are usually padded upwards - one instructor from a outplacement firm admitted they count internal transfers, promotions, and relocations (even if just to another building) as jobs found thru
networking.
Second - almost nobody admitted to doing the networking as commonly taught (phone calls, meeting managers for informational meetings or lunchs, industry information gathering, etc). All the managers I have spoken to
universally agree that they rarely agree to these
meetings/lunches/phone interviews - they generally identify these people as jobhunters and simply haven't the time to waste on them. And most of them have some sort of company policy or rule against this anyways. Or don't want to annoy the HR person by shortcircuiting the hiring process.
Third - most real networking connections come from someone you know very personally - a coworker, family member, friend - and they seem to
spontaneously arise when they learn you are looking for a job. A trivial acquaintence arising from a few phone calls or a single meeting rarely seems to productive. I think this is due to the reputation factor - if you bring someone into your
organization, that new person's performance and behavior reflects on you and your rep.
Fourth, the networking clubs I have been to seem to devolve into the same people rehashing the same old leads. Maybe I just have been to bad clubs. The most useful stuff from the clubs tends to be the personal skills enhancement (interviewing, rehearsing, resume rewriting).
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No Subject Given
If the only time you ever call anybody is to ask for help - then yes, your network will fail you on a regular basis. AC's point about the formal networking club is on though. In my expeience, those meetings are worthless.
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Re: No Subject Given
I've gotten my last five contracts through networking on one level or another. Mostly friends and friends of friends that I normally hang out with. We've had this little click going for several years now, and it works well. I don't know if I would call it organized. We've talked about it. It probably wouldn't be as effective if it was.
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Internet Job Hunts Can Be Fun...
...you just have to be tech-savy to make it so.
My little kick is putting web bugs in word documents. I just wish word had better mechanisms to extract additional information from the resume viewer than a static web bug.
Idealy, I'd like to be able to extract the viewer's e-mail address and perhaps lookup their LDAP record and then have the web bug hit that non-existant URL and be served up a 1 pixel transparent image. That way, I could have my server logs page me when I got a new hit and then I could call the person immediately (before they circular file my resume with all the other shmucks).
Resume web-bugs are really a must... even if you're already employed. I've been able to determine the end-of-contract and out-sourcing situations well in advance of their annoucment to the general populus of wage slaves.
BTW, a portfolio and/or volunteering is far better than networking. Networking only offers you the opportunity to learn about other people's egos and tech others how big yours is.
Adding a site to your portfolio, contributing to/starting an open source project or providing experteese at no costs to non-profit organizations that need it, but can't afford it offers the opportunity to learn a new skill. Non-technical networking is simply schmoosing and anyone wanting to actually acomplish something (rather than someone who is just looking for a JSO - Job Shapped Object) will recognize it as such.
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Alparslan Pazarlama
anı yüzükleri kol düğmesi online satış rozet şilt plaket
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Mücevher,Anı Yüzükleri,Kol Düğmesi,Kravat İğnesi,Rozet
Mücevher,Anı Yüzükleri,Kol Düğmesi,Kravat İğnesi,Rozet,Online Alışveriş
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