Cyber Poems

A modern job hunting campaign is by nature quite complicated. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and possible challenges for job hunters.

Job hunting needs to be thought of as a highly personal, highly targeted marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of contacts is your lead generating machine.

So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job board and got 600+ applications in a calendar week. For one job. That’s increased competition for jobs.

Had a great candidiate called us before we posted the ad, they could have secured the position prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing an employee at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone was aware of the job for at least 12 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?

Be sure to check your cover letter and resume carefully! When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily eliminated with a speedy triage process. How? The same way any manager would. By rejecting resumes where the objective didn’t match our job posting. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us causes not to employ them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating prospects whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by eliminating candidates who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.

So the great news is that job boards give you a feel of who is hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still try, if you have a well thought out resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.

Another potential problem to be aware of is how easily you can be investigated on the net. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some personal web pages that were in questionable taste. Nothing insane, but enough to sway our thinking about who to hire.

AA-Careers provides a encompassing set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.

Be careful out there, and good hunting!

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How do you express yourself personally and professionally? Are you quiet, subtle, and gentle? Are you outgoing, excited, and energetic? Do you share many other people’s interests and activities or do you follow your own path? There are a million things we can do with our lives and every day people try new experiences.

For example, Dennis Tamburo is an avid golfer but there was a time in his youth before he swung his first club. People like Dennis Tamburo take on the challenge of learning a new skill, a fun sport, and immerse themselves in the joyous experience. He may not be Martin Laird or Chad Campbell, but Dennis Tamburo has certainly learned to love golf like so many other avid sports fans.

You do reveal your interests in other ways as well. For example, the schools you choose, the education you pursue, and the career path you follow all reveal something about the person you are and where you are going in life. Bill Gates dropped out of college to start a successful business and today he is dedicated to helping other people through education. George Soros started the Open Society Institute to support his philanthropic initiatives. But even moderately successful business people like Dennis Tamburo can help others through philanthropy.

Someone like Dennis Tamburo, who has worked professionally in mortgage finance, real estate, and construction materials sales may follow a career path that leads him to meet other people with special needs. Or one may just choose to help some charities as a personal preference. People like Dennis Tamburo nonetheless prove they care about others through their donations and volunteer efforts.

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