There are many obvious advantages to applying for jobs online. You can cover a wide swath of job applications, geographic regions, and message boards very quickly and efficiently. However, job search websites are certainly no silver bullet for finding a job, and you still have to apply many of the same considerations that you would for a traditional job search. With literally thousands of new job sites cropping up each year (some more reputable than others), here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Maintain control. Job sites offer a service, but there’s always something in it for them. Ultimately, a website is just one more tool in the tool kit, and you want the end result to be the same: you send your application to a particular individual within the company. It is important that you are apply on your own behalf, as some websites will offer to do this for you. This is one of the reasons that a low-tech online search, such as a google search that leads to the webpage of the hiring manager, is often more productive than a fancy automated service.
2. Look before you leap. Online job services are required to provide you with the fine print. Check out their privacy policy and the details of their service agreements before you give away your information. The internet is a powerful and wonderful place, but it is also very dangerous, and once your information is given to the wrong people, it can never be retracted or undone.
3. Maintain your profile. As you know, job searching is a job in itself. Make sure you’re putting sufficient time into maintaining your online profiles on job sites and LinkedIn.
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The jobs trends website payscale.com just released their list of the cities with the highest wage increases in the fourth quarter of 2011. Here are the cities that topped the list:
If you’re feeling discouraged in your search for a new job, the new year can be a great time to relax, recharge, and refresh your vision and goals for the coming months. If you put your job search aside during the holidays, coming back to it now will give you a fresh perspective and renewed energy for the task at hand. If you didn’t take a break over the holidays, consider taking one now. Even a few days of rest will help you reset for a renewed effort at finding a job.
Waiting to hear about a potential job often brings to mind your very first date – waiting by the phone for hours hoping to get a call, and, more often than not, the phone stubbornly refusing to ring. Although waiting by the phone no longer means holing yourself up in your bedroom for days (thanks mobile phones!), it can be just as frustrating waiting for a job call-back that never comes.
In this third installment of breaking bad habits that are holding you back from getting the job you want, we look at a number of things you need to change right away.
In an earlier post, we shared 7 bad habits that job seekers today should get rid of as soon as possible. Here are 7 more valuable tips if you want to clean up your act and land that next great job. If you are serious about getting work, you need to pay attention to these big Don’ts.
The job market is like water, always changing. What looks solid at one moment, in the next looks completely different. This presents obvious challenges to those who are looking for a new job. To some extent, we are all old dogs, creatures of habit, but we need to buck some of those habits if we are to survive and thrive in the current world of job hunting. Here are 7 things you should stop doing right now to maximize your chances of being hired.
If you consider your job hunt to be a full-time job, you may be thinking about taking some time off during the holidays like a normal worker would. However, by checking out during the end of December, you may be missing out on the easiest time to get a job all year. As the year draws to a close, companies with leftover cash in their hiring budgets begin actively searching for new recruits, and may even be more generous in hiring bonuses, salaries, and benefits than normal. Even better than this slight increase in openings is the significant decrease in competition that occurs around this time of year. Just as you were thinking about taking some time off your job search for the holidays, many other searchers do as well, leaving more openings for you to take advantage of. Still not convinced that the holidays are a good time for a job search? Even if there’s no leftover cash in the hiring budgets, many companies are still looking for extra workers for the January rush, when ambitious projects are most likely to be launched.
More so than an interview or first day of work, your resume is the ultimate first impression. Although it may seem trivial, this little piece of paper goes a long way in the work world. From the font size to the content, there are several ways to assure that yours will go straight to the top of the pile.