The EFFECTIVE Way To Do Job Searching Online
It's a fact, 95% of the job searching online that you have already done has been a waste of time. Those endless job postings and forms you filled out have most likely never even been looked at!
There's one fundamental key to doing successful job searching online, and that is...
Avoid doing what every other job searcher is doing!
What does every other job searcher do? To start, they go to the top job sites, Monster, CareerBuilder, SnagAJob, HotJobs, etc.
Some of the really crafty people will use places like Indeed.com to search everywhere at once.
Then, they apply for job after job after job after job. After filling out about 50-100 postings, they may or may not get just one phone call.
Why does nobody call? I'll tell you why, and it's not your fault. It's because with every job posting made on these top sites, employers are going to get about 300-500 applications. Meaning that with your amazing resume and cover letter, you still have to beat out at least 300 applicants to get to your future employers attention.
Chances are, you're resume will get looked at for 5-8 seconds (their have been studies that prove this) at best, maybe not even looked at all if the employer finds a few good candidates in the first stack of 100.
So how do we avoid this scenario of competing with so many people?
If you're smart and savvy, you can contact companies in a way that pushes you through the pack. I'll get to this in a second, but first, let's develop a list of potential companies you want to work for...
How To Find The Right Companies
Step 1 with savvy job searching online involves creating a list of companies that you would like to work for. For this, I'm not totally against using places like Indeed.com to start. Simply enter in the type of job, and where you want the job to be, and Indeed.com will search the top job sites all-in-one location.
Via this method, you're finding companies that you know are hiring. This is an obvious plus. The minus is that everyone else knows they are hiring too, so you are competing with a ton of other potential employees.
Step 2 is something that none of your competitors are doing. And that is using Google Maps to find companies...
Again, enter in what you are looking for and where, and let Google find great companies in that area.
As you can see from the image above, If I'm a Computer Science major living near Columbus, I would enter "technology columbus ohio" since I'm looking for a technology company to work for.
You should be keeping a list of companies that are of interest to you in a Spreadsheet.
For now, just worry about the first column. We'll get to the other columns in a second.
I want to make one final point about finding companies... put the companies you think have real potential at the top of your spreadsheet, or put a * next to them so that you know you really like them.
I believe one of the biggest mistakes people make when job searching online is that they apply one time to 100 different places. When in reality, it's probably better to apply 20 times to just 5 different places.
Once you find a few companies that you love, go after them hard! Bother and pester them without end until they at the very least call you back and say they aren't interested.
OK, with that being said, let's discuss what you are doing with this list of companies you just gathered...
Using Site Contact Forms
The best and fastest way to contact companies is through the phone number on their contact form. Ask for the manager, or whomever you think would be hriing you (note: avoid human resources at all cost) and see if you can get scheduled for an interview, at their earliest convenience!
If you are a big scaredy cat (like me) and absolutely fear the rejection that might happen from a phone call, start by using the company Web site's contact form.
By using their contact form, you're not competing with 300 applicants like you are with job postings at Monster. You're competing with around 1-50 applicants. Which still aren't the best odds, but I have a way to break through the pack even further.
Before I mention that, I want to give you a little copywriting 101. Because what you say in these contact forms is important.
You have to let your potential employer know how they would benefit from hiring you. So many people make the mistake of talking about themselves too much. "I'd love for you to hire me, it would mean a lot to me...yada yada yada."
It's a sad reality, but employers only care about themselves. So look at your message from the employers end. If they read your message, would they think "Wow, I need to contact this person immediately!" If not, it's time to rewrite it.
OK, so how do we break from the pack?
The trick is to contact these people not once, now twice, but as many times as it takes for them to give you some sort of response!
Now, don't barrage them with 100 emails in one day. I would say wait 2-3 days at least before you contact them again. But keep at it until they send something back, telling you to come in for an interview or to stop emailing you.
Even if they say stop, you may want to try emailing them one more time. Saying something like..
"I apologize for all of the emails. I'm simply very confident that I would make a great asset to your company. If I could have just 10-15 minutes of your time, I know I could demonstrate my skills to you."
If you really think this company is "the one" then go after them like crazy and don't let one no get in your way. Although after a few no's though, you may be running into some legal issues! :-)
My First Job
The first time I did job searching online was right out of college. Believe me, it was tough, so I understand how you feel.
I made all of the mistakes that I've talked about. I went through 6 interviews, and contacted (via phone and contact form) around 200 companies in the entire state of Ohio!
The job I ended up landing didn't have any job postings. As I was later told, they were "thinking" about hiring someone in the near future. I can remember emailing them I think 4 times before I ever received any response.
But when they did decide they needed someone, I was at the top of their list.
This is how you break through the pack. This is how you prevent yourself from competing with hundreds of different people, over and over again.
Find whatever way you can to get in contact with the person who is hiring. And don't take this stuff personally, the fear of rejection runs inside all of us.
The best way I dealt with it is to think of the job search as a numbers game. The more people you contact, the more likely someone will contact you back. The more interviews you get, the more likely someone will say "You're hired!"
Keep at it and I promise, eventually you'll land that dream job!
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