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The Extinction – Employment Advertising

Posted by Carolyn Thompson on Jun 12, 2012 in Job Search

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Things change.  Flowers bloom, technology advances, leaves fall, consumer needs and buying habits evolve. Even the way we do business is changing largely due to the emergence of social media which is also threatening conventional job search methods. This may not be a species to save and there are gads of ways to tap in to these emerging trends before the extinction of the traditional wanted ad.

I know we have said this many times on this blog. So, if you’re a job seeker, I’m sure you’ve seen the statistic that 80% of jobs are obtained through personal networking.

It never fails that when a friend of mine is faced with job change, I am one of their first calls no matter what their field of expertise.  While this makes sense – I have thousands of contacts and am happy to help them – the first thing I ask is what they are doing to look for a new job. They express how frustrated they are that when they reply to ads that they get no response but that is the only thing they have been doing. Here are a few avenues you can search to gain control over your job hunt so you won’t have to rely on blind luck; which is what you are doing if you are only selectively responding to ads.

In my book TEN STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT JOB one of the first points made is that it is fiscally impossible for companies to professionally advertise and post every job they have open. They would go broke!  It’s expensive to advertise on even the most common job seeker sites. If an employer is looking for hard-to-find people (programmers, DBA’s, tax, audit, etc.), many times the right people aren’t responding so the companies stop advertising and look to referral methods.

To tap into that network of unadvertised jobs you have to do some research.  Who would have needs for you and your skill sets? Classified employment advertising is a great place to get leads even if the job advertised isn’t perfect for you.  For example, if you are a Hyperion System Administrator, looking for companies that post other positions requiring Hyperion skills on their websites or on job boards would make that company a target of yours. Why? Because they, at some point, will need a person like you and the employees there who use Hyperion know other former employers and co-workers they can refer you to as well.

Remember, finding a job is all about timing so expanding your network when the timing is right can be tricky.  Adopting a constant approach to networking is a better plan than waiting until you are desperate.  People find it easier to help you when there isn’t a crucial deadline to be met.  Setting a goal of reaching out to a new person every day, as an example, that you have something in common with on LinkedIn is a great way to expand your on line presence and profile. To expand your sphere of personal influence, you have to network online, professionally and personally.

Your LinkedIn profile should be peppered with appropriate keywords indicating the work you would like to be contacted about.  Professional networking via industry conferences, association meetings ,and other business groups organized around geography (like the chamber of commerce) are great places to meet people that can help you uncover unadvertised opportunities.

People ask me all the time about Twitter.  If you look for #jobs you will see thousands of jobs popping up every day that you can link to on Twitter.  If you Tweet, make sure your profile, again, has all the keywords you want to be found for in it.

Be mindful of the companionship you keep on line. This past week someone was recommended to me as a person who was influential via social media but when I looked at this person’s profile I saw something different.  The posts from their “friends” and “followers” were littered with profanity, slang and were generally unprofessional.  We can’t control what others are posting but we can monitor it and remove it so, if you are looking for a job, you want to make sure you look as professional on line as you are for an interview.

Embrase the extinction with these new ways of job searching.

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