Making the Job Search Personal Again
Posted on January 18, 2013 by Sharon Beyer, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.
Technology is amazing, but no one would argue that it has created an impersonal culture. Put the "personal" back into to the job search process!
Have you just hit “apply” for what feels like the millionth time? Do you wonder why you haven’t even so much as received an acknowledgement that your resume was received? Are you baffled that your friend Jane got a job but you can’t seem to even get noticed? You are certain you are the perfect candidate with a unique background, then crickets!! You are not alone. Looking for a job has become such an impersonal process that it has left most job seekers wondering the same things.
Now, let’s consider it from the other side. Due to the whole search process being online, the number of applications received for any one job is astounding. To give you a feel, Google received 75,000 job applications in one week. One week‼ We can only imagine that the person who has the monumental task of reviewing that mountain of resumes is overwhelmed just looking at them. Some lucky companies have a software that allows the reviewer to enter some key words that an applicant should have on the resume. Forgot to use those words, well, you’re out of luck! Think about all of the high quality candidates that are missed. Honestly, it’s probably a true miracle if your application and resume are seen.
While technology is an amazing advancement, no one would argue that it has created a more impersonal culture. We bury our noses in the phone or some other gadget rather than engage with others. It seems that the hiring process has been a victim of this new way of living and working. We apply to many different jobs online, never meeting or talking with anyone. We apply to a large number of them simply with the hope of being seen. We wait for someone to respond via email just to tell us they received our application. Don’t try responding back, because that’s not an option. We forget to follow-up, because we can’t keep up with all of the places we applied. It’s an exhausting and impersonal process. It’s so impersonal that we even forget to involve ourselves.
I started considering how to stand out in this new world of impersonal job searching. First and foremost is always the need to have a high quality resume with good grammar and formatting. Additionally, only apply for a job that is a good fit based on your background and skills. Those items should be first priority. Here are some quick suggestions for a stand out resume:
1. Include standard buzzwords for your industry. Review three or four jobs of interest and find words that are repeated in all of them and fit them into your resume.
2. Ensure that your resume is digital friendly. Many articles suggest that you have two versions of your resume. A standard Word document with formatting and another one that translates well to digital format if a copy/paste is needed.
3. Hyperlink. Add active hyperlinks to your social media profiles, blog entries, and/or published articles.
Your final steps after applying? How about bringing some of the personal back to the process? Here’s a list of some things you could be doing to make the process a bit more personal:
1. Get help finding your passion. Figure out what you really want to be doing and where your strengths would be best utilized. Use a coach, career counselor, or friends and family. You don’t have to figure it out yourself. Use a support system.
2. Follow up using the phone. Rank your applications by those companies at which you’d most like to work. Call those places just to ensure they received your resume. This happens so infrequently that this step alone may cause you to stand out. You may not get through to everyone but it’s worth a try.
3. Use social media. This may seem counterproductive to my “personal” advice, but following companies on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter lets you stay on top of what the company and its customers are talking about. This information can later, when you finally meet or talk to someone, make you look like a superstar for understanding the company’s image, as well as having unique information at your disposal.
4. Use your connections. Sites like LinkedIn have opened up a vast sea of networking opportunities. When could you ever expect to see the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (okay, maybe Three Degrees in this case) live and in action for all of your own connections? Search the companies you’re interested in to see if you have a connection to anyone. If you do, call your connection (yes, call) and see if they can work out an introduction or at least get your resume over to the choice company.
There is no magic method to getting yourself set up with an interview. Some people say it’s who you know, others say it’s all about hard work and preparation. Realistically, both are, likely, equally important. Keeping this in mind, don’t forget about “who you know” or “who you could know” and make the personal work for you.
