For the past two weeks, we have been talking about the mindset or internal tools to finding your ideal job. However, I don’t want to forget the external tools. Three weeks ago networking was the subject. A good percentage of people do land through networking, plus networking will enhance your opportunities when you find a position online. Some of us in transition spend too much time on the internet, going from web site to web site and then becoming discouraged because there is nothing new. I would like you to try to find an ideal balance for your own situation between networking and online job search. Two web sites I suggest are:
www.indeed.com aggregates job postings from other major job boards, company web sites, sometimes even The Ladders. It is easy to use and might mean that you don’t need other sites.
- On the first screen, you fill in the What and the Where of your job search and click the Find Jobs button. Be careful on the What area. If you fill in “Director of Marketing,” then VP of Marketing might not show up. If you are unfamiliar with internet job search, you might have to spend time finessing words to have this work well for you.
- When the jobs are listed, you will notice a salary information section on the left hand side. It will tell you how many of the jobs are in each of the listed salary categories and then you can filter accordingly.
- If you look at the bottom of each posting, you will notice where the original job posting came from which should make you realize that you don’t have to look at multiple job boards.
- Next to the Find Jobs button is an Advanced Job Search feature. Go into that to filter by adding words, removing words, putting in salary requirements, changing distance. This way you can customize your search. Once again, be careful. If you filter out the word “insurance” because you don’t want to sell insurance, you might also be filtering out job postings that indicate that they provide insurance.
- Once you have a winning filter in place that is not too narrow or too wide, you can set up an alert. This is found just above the first listed job and has an envelope as a symbol. You can set up one or more alerts, which will send new jobs to your e-mail. This way you don’t have to search online every day.
I was just recently introduced to www.simplyhired.com and so am not as familiar with it. However, an interesting and helpful feature of www.simplyhired.com is that you can press a Who Do I Know button which will then lead you to allow access to your Linkedin account. Next to job postings where you have a Linkedin contact, or a contact who has a contact at that firm, you will see the name(s). This is a nice combination of internet search and networking. Of course, it is now up to you to follow through with the contacts.
PLEASE COMMENT
Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories. Once a month, I will choose one commenter to contact for a free coaching session.
HOW TO REACH ME
www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching
www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching
www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching
Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.
