Okay, you’ve decided it’s time for a change and you are ready to jump into the search for a new opportunity. Another cliché…looking for a job is a fulltime job. Unfortunately, this is 100% true. If you’re committed to moving on from your present job then you need to be committed to putting forth the effort to find a new job.
WARNING: You will be frustrated; You will be disheartened; You will be demoralized!
Why you ask? I will provide you with the ugly details in this, and future, articles.
Let’s start with the age-old question, which is the best way to find a new job? Applying to online applications or networking? The advice from career coaches is that networking is the way to go but it sounds easier that it is and in my experience the results are not any better than applying online.
While I agree that networking is a great way to find hidden opportunities; the fruits of your efforts are not rewarded in kind. Most job seekers reach out to their established network of contacts. However, people are busy and often don’t respond to your inquiry or they don’t have anything to offer so they ignore your request. “Cold calling” key people at various companies is challenging as you don’t have their email address. You can try reaching out on LinkedIn but I’ve had very few responses. Add to this that you need to pay for LinkedIn’s premium service to email someone outside your network. And you only get (5) InMails per month.
Quick anecdote, I was part of a job seekers group and one person eventually landed a new job. She stated that she found this new opportunity exclusively through networking. She went on to share that she wrote over 500 emails to both known contacts and cold called contacts! Again, without knowing their business email addresses, 500 emails through other platforms like LinkedIn is impossible.
Okay then, what about applying to positions online? I’ll start by saying that I’ve been through the job search several times over the years and each time the technology has improved but the interaction/connection has worsened. Add to this that the majority of positions are now remote so you are competing with people globally instead of regionally. I have a friend that is a recruiter and she told me that she posted a position and received over 100 resumes in the first hour. If you think that the talent acquisition people are reviewing all the resumes they receive…forgetaboutit!
Smaller companies that cannot afford an ATS (Application Tracking System) system like WorkDay do manually review resumes but stop reviewing once they get enough “qualified” candidates. anyone that tells you they review all the resumes is not being truthful or doesn’t have enough work to do.
Larger organizations that can afford an ATS system use the system to screen all resumes for key words that align with the job description. Further refining the search by location, salary requirements, education, industry certifications can eventually whittle the list of qualified candidates to a small enough subset to be manually reviewed.
Basically, you’ve entered the lottery and you have to hope and pray that your number (in this case, resume) is drawn but that doesn’t mean you’ve won anything!
Next up: The Job Description; Reading between the lines
TC
