Searching for Jobs Online?

Embedded Geek asks: "My wife, a VB/C/C++/SQL coder, was recently laid off from our mutual employer and is on the job hunt. I am also sending around feelers. We've posted both our resumes at our own site (here and here) and at Monster.Com. So far, we have gotten disappotinting results - several headhunters generating a lot of smoke but no heat. Some people have suggested dice.com and other techie oriented sites, but I wonder if we're going about this the wrong way. Are we better off using the Internet to directly find and reach companies (I really dislike headhunters)? Should we find a site affiliated with a major newspaper's want ads? Has anyone out there found other strategies to using the Internet in a job search?"

This related submission from kalanar asks a similar question, but questions whether exclusive online searches are the answer: "With the current economy state, and the increase in unemployment in the US, I'm curious if anyone has had luck with onlinejobsearchengines. I have applied to many job listing (80+) and have not received much of a reply. I'm curious if employers are worried about the relocation factor or if employers are more anxious to hire people that have applied in other ways. (Fax/Inperson)"

So if you are recently employed, especially in the US, what strategies did you use to land your current job?

Comments

Re:Be careful of head hunters

[RadioheadKid]

Unfortunately I don't have much advice on where to go to find jobs, but one thing to avoid may be the consulting agencies especially in the current economic environment. Some employers may just ignore the consultants when they call (although they won't admit it) because they don't feel like paying the extra money to hire someone through them, especially now when money is tight and there seems to be a surplus of people to hire.

As said earlier, you'd be surprised how far networking can get you..Whether at a social gathering or through your friends, let everyone know that you are looking and keep contact information handy, you never know when something might come up. Get in contact with some previous co-workers who you go along with, alot of times they may know of an opening at their company or a past job. Hope that helps...

Stupid Resume Tricks

[gnovos]

I know this will sound silly, but it works for some reason. If you are sending a resume to one of those "resumes@foo.com" or "jobs@bar.com", most likely you will see it filed away and never see a human response. A trick I learned (by accident) is to send an email to one of these addresses talking about your "attached" resume ("As you can see by my skills x and y in my resume blah blah..."), but *don't* actually attach it. 90% of the time you will get an email back from a *person* (i.e. not an autoresponder) asking if you could try and send it again. Now you have an actual email address of somone in H.R. that you can use to send polite emails concering the status of your application, etc.

I know many people will scoff at this idea saying "No self respecting tech company will hire you if you show you're too stupid to be able to attach a resume!" But this isn;t the case. Most of the people who work in HR are the types who find it perfectly resonable to make a mistake and forget to press the "attach" button, or else they are the types that believe whole-heartedly that attachements can get "lost in the mail" even if it's email.

Once you have an actual person (sometimes including a phone number!) you have the chance to add a little "human touch". As long as you are polite and don't make yourself look bad, this extra little boost can be what seperates you from the rest of teh stack of resumes.

Job Hunting in a down market

[fizban]

The major myth about down markets is that there are no jobs out there. Everyone's getting laid off and no one's getting hired, right? Actually, there are MANY jobs out there, but it's usually the privately held companies that are in need of people more than the publicly held companies.

Just think about it. When the market is up, everyone wants a job at a publicly traded company so they can get in on the stock options. But in the down economy, those same publicly traded companies are trying to save their stock prices by cutting costs, which includes cutting personnel.

So, we know the jobs are out there, but how can we get them?

1) Don't ever rely on your own personal website. No one looks at it except your friends.

2) Online job sites are really only used by headhunters. Only once in a blue moon is there an individual company that posts a job offer there. So, if you want to use a headhunter, use an online job site. But, be forewarned: in a down economy, companies are not going to want to pay the extra headhunter's fees when they already have applications being sent directly to them.

3) Ads in the newspaper are better than online job searches. It's amazing, its preposterous, but still the large majority of HR people will use the local newspaper to find applicants, rather than going online. The thinking is that they're more likely to find someone local to their company, plus most HR people just aren't as interested in computers as we are.

4) To really, really get a job in the down economy, your best bet is your friends, your family, your schoolmates, your past coworkers - your network. Networking is going to be your lifesaver in finding a job nowadays. Most companies who are hiring now are looking for trusted people. They can't afford to take on unkowns who may leave in 3-4 months, wasting their time and money. So, they'll turn to their employees, their friends and their families to find people. And because of that, your best bet for finding a job is seeking out everyone you know on earth and checking in to see if they know anything about any openings. It's the one true way to really get yourself noticed and in the position you need. So, brush up the resume, but really brush up the people skills and work on your contacts. Good luck!