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
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Re: Networking also backfires
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Re: Networking also backfires
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Re: Networking also backfires
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
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Re: No Subject Given
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Internet Job Hunts Can Be Fun...
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
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Mücevher,Anı Yüzükleri,Kol Düğmesi,Kravat İğnesi,Rozet
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Job search sites is the best way
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