Insider Tips for Posting to Job Boards
After I prepare a resume for someone, the first thing they do is
rush out and post it onto the job boards. This is certainly a
good idea. However, many of them stop at this step and then
wonder why they aren't getting calls. There are subtleties to
job board posting and knowing these will improve your
effectiveness rate.
Did you know that the larger job boards have an effectiveness
rate of less than 3% in getting people jobs? That's not very
good. In fact, many smaller companies don't post to Monster and
the big boards because they are too expensive. This is
significant because MORE THAN 90% of the jobs in America are
within small companies - in fact the SBA estimates that 75% of
new jobs are with small businesses. So the first tip is to do
some research and find the smaller job boards. Most importantly
focus on the boards that specialize in your field. For example,
if you are looking for a job in accounting, check out
accounting.com or jobsinthemoney.com. If you are looking to get
into pharmaceutical sales, look at go2pharmsales.com. The other
thing you should do is look for professional organizations in
your field and see if they have a job board. (Readers who would
like a free list of these kinds of job boards should send an
email to dgoodman@gotthejob.com with Job Boards in the subject
line).
Most importantly, make sure you have a GREAT resume and that it
is formatted appropriately for the job board. If you don't have
the right keywords in your resume and it doesn't make you stand
out, then consider working with a professional resume writing
firm. A few hundred dollar investment that gets you a paycheck
faster is well worth the investment. (Readers who would like a
free evaluation of their resume may send it to
dgoodman@gotthejob.com with Free Evaluation in the subject line
and we'll give you some honest feedback about whether your
resume does you justice).
Note that you can't just cut and paste your MS Word resume onto
the site - it will look terrible. Create an ASCII or .txt file
and paste that. You can do this by opening your resume in MS
Word, hitting File-Save As and choosing Text Only. This will
create a .txt version of your resume. Close the file, reopen it
and edit out any stray characters left over from your bullets
and other graphics characters. This file will now cut and paste
into web sites and e-mails and automatically format itself.
Now, when you are posting your resume, see if the site has
search agents. This is where you indicate the type of position
you are seeking (location, title, etc.) and whenever a new
position is posted that meets your criteria, you are notified.
This allows you to be one of the first to respond so your resume
will be at the top of the pile.
Another neat little trick is to update your resume twice a week.
Just change a few things here and there and the job board will
see your resume as newly posted which brings you on the radar
screen of employers and recruiters.
Using job boards is the first thing you should do with your
resume, but certainly not the only thing. Remember that most
jobs are not advertised and networking, recruiters and direct
mail programs should be considered as part of your job search
strategy. Use the above tips and you will be optimizing your
effectiveness from job boards.