Kate's Posts - RecruitingBlogs2024-03-29T07:52:44ZKatehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/Kate233https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1527008149?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=1w6568g5wyhqe&xn_auth=noWhy are you frustrated with online job search?tag:recruitingblogs.com,2015-03-31:502551:BlogPost:18751602015-03-31T18:48:02.000ZKatehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/Kate233
<p>We’ve been working hard to provide the first candidate based tool for job search. In effect, we think the entire current model is backwards. Jobs should be finding candidates instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>As part of this effort, we have spoken with hundreds of professionals about their experience and frustration with current job search. The feedback has been remarkably consistent with the key points being:</p>
<p>1.) <strong>Searching for jobs with current tools is…</strong></p>
<p>We’ve been working hard to provide the first candidate based tool for job search. In effect, we think the entire current model is backwards. Jobs should be finding candidates instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>As part of this effort, we have spoken with hundreds of professionals about their experience and frustration with current job search. The feedback has been remarkably consistent with the key points being:</p>
<p>1.) <strong>Searching for jobs with current tools is tedious</strong> – In our initial surveys perhaps the most cited frustration with current job search was how tedious a process it is. Searching by job titles and zip code then having to open job post after job post to only occasionally, if at all, come across an interesting opportunity. Of course, once you do find and apply to one it seems to frequently hit the dreaded black hole (see 4 below).</p>
<p>2.) <strong>Stalking is creepy</strong> – Another point of feedback was the discomfort with tools that scrap personal information from all over the internet, mostly from social sites, to offer this data to recruiters and open professionals up to unwanted spam. While this is promising for recruiters, to simply finding potential candidates, many professionals felt strange when they learn this is how their information was gained by the recruiter.</p>
<p>3.) <strong>Need for discretion</strong> – There was a general discomfort with the social model – that of putting your career background on full public display. Feedback around this point was that it lead to too much unqualified job opportunities being spammed to the professional, frequent connection requests from recruiters that they did not know (or for that matter what the connection request was related to). While they do admit this can save them time from having to search, they stated that the trade off frequently was not worth it.</p>
<p>4.) <strong>The dreaded black hole</strong> – After a lot of effort, you finally find a job that you have an interest in, hit apply and off it goes into the black hole. Frequently you will receive a canned email that thanks you for submitting your résumé but beyond that, you have no idea if a human being even will give it a review. You don’t know if it made it through some obscure keywords based ATS system – or even if they have one. Effectively it feels when applying online that your information falls into a black hole and never comes out.</p>
<p>5.) <strong>Lack of human contact</strong> – When we surveyed many of these professionals the general feeling was that every year it seems more technology is being introduced to further separate humans from talking to one another in a distinctly human process. Many professionals feel the technology available today to screen out candidates it being relied on too heavily by companies and eliminating them from opportunities they know they are well qualified for. However, since they rarely speak with a human being, it becomes impossible to prove this point.</p>
<p>6.) <strong>Tedious nature of applying for a job</strong> – Beyond the black hole perception previously discussed was frustrating enough, but other frequent mentions were: canned video interviews, various types of nonsensical tests and laborious application processes.</p>
<p>7.) <strong>Too much spam</strong> – Professionals were dis-satisfied with tools that matched keywords on their profiles and simply provided them a constant stream of job openings that were not applicable to their skills or backgrounds. Vice Presidents frequently receive Executive Assistant to Vice President jobs and Technology Product Managers frequently receive software development positions. As a result, this is simply viewed as spam and, when too much of it is delivered from a source, eventually gets marked as such in their email which may cause them to miss out on a real match if it happens.</p>
<p>8.) <strong>Being recruited where they don’t want to be</strong> – An often cited frustration was recruiters spamming professionals on sites that they are on for other purposes. In particular, one large professional social network came up as the primary example of where this happens. Another was on industry forums or groups that they are members of to collaborate with other industry professionals but instead get pinged with recruiting requests.</p>
<p>This is the feedback we received from hundreds of professionals but we would love to hear your comments, frustrations, and feedback on your view of the current online job search experience.</p>7 Job Search Tips for Currently Employed Professionalstag:recruitingblogs.com,2015-03-20:502551:BlogPost:18732852015-03-20T15:41:28.000ZKatehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/Kate233
<p>You’re a busy professional. You don’t have time to look for a new job but you want to also want to make sure you don’t miss out on any potentially great job opportunities. Job boards and similar sites are tedious and time-consuming while social networks subject. So what is the best way to go about finding new job opportunities if you are currently employed?</p>
<p><strong>1. Respect Your Current Employer’s Time</strong></p>
<p>One thing you should not do is conduct any sort of job search…</p>
<p>You’re a busy professional. You don’t have time to look for a new job but you want to also want to make sure you don’t miss out on any potentially great job opportunities. Job boards and similar sites are tedious and time-consuming while social networks subject. So what is the best way to go about finding new job opportunities if you are currently employed?</p>
<p><strong>1. Respect Your Current Employer’s Time</strong></p>
<p>One thing you should not do is conduct any sort of job search while on your current employer’s time. Your employer is paying you to do a job, and you should respect the agreement with them and do the job you are paid for.</p>
<p><strong>2. Be Discreet</strong></p>
<p>You don’t want to jeopardize your current job by openly looking for another one or giving the impression that you are. Many companies track employee activity on company equipment. Seeing you spending a lot of time on job sites can tip them off that your looking for another opportunity and, if caught, they may help you free up your time to look. Likewise, be careful of your activity on social networks. Major updates to your profile are announced to your network, as are new connections you make. If your connected to anyone you work with they will see and may question this recent activity. For example, if you are suddenly making connections with quite a few recruiters and you are not in HR in your company, this will look suspicious to your current employer.</p>
<p><strong>3. Be In Control</strong></p>
<p>Don’t allow your career information or résumé to be available for anyone to get a hold of. It can cause you to be subjected to a lot of spam for jobs that don’t interest or even apply to you – wasting your time. You should make sure you know exactly who is getting your information, for what purpose, and that you have an interest in the position before you release this information.</p>
<p><strong>4. Don’t bother searching</strong></p>
<p>Current job sites produced very little in results. Your simply spending a lot of time to through in your application with tons of other responses and your have little control on what happens with your information once you send it. If you think about the number of jobs you’ve already had in your career, you’ll most likely discover most of the jobs you have had have found you. What you ideally want is for companies to be able to find you, saving you a lot of time and wasted effort, but make sure you do it while maintaining control of your information and keep it all discreet.</p>
<p><strong>5. Avoid any type of spam job site</strong></p>
<p>So many sites advertise how their matching engines will ensure you get great opportunities. The reality is you get spammed with a lot of jobs that don’t apply to you. If you are currently a Vice President, for example, you will find yourself getting a lot of Executive Assistant to Vice President jobs in your inbox. Likewise, if you market technology products, you will frequently find developer positions showing up in your inbox because of technology keyword matches. They typically are playing to the numbers – throwing a few hundred jobs in your inbox and hoping one of them might match what your looking for. Avoid these type of sites if you want to avoid wasting your time.</p>
<p><strong>6. Focus on sites that strictly focus on jobs</strong></p>
<p>This is particularly true on social networks in particular. Do you really want to be looking for a job on sites that have such a broad focus? Your activity is out their for everyone to see in addition to your job search being mired in a ton of activity which has nothing to do with job search. Do yourself a favor and limit yourself to sites where the focus is on one thing and one thing only – jobs.</p>
<p><strong>7. Make sure human contact is involved</strong></p>
<p>As I mentioned earlier, little results from any type of random application or job spamming. You want to make sure that if a relevant job opportunity presents itself, you are connecting and communicating with a real person as early in the process as possible. Make sure you know who is getting your career history and for what purpose. This way, if it is a position you are really interested in, you can have a direct dialog to try and convince them how you are a good fit.</p>
<p>Typically, it is only possible to do all of the above with fairly manual methods through third-party recruiters. Most job sites are not focused on you, but on job seekers. Booyango is the first site created that offers job search specifically for working professionals and incorporates all the capabilities mentioned in this post.</p>
<p>Remember, you need to be discreet and in control of your job search and also want to make sure you don’t miss out on good opportunities in the future.</p>Job search is now a permanent affair!tag:recruitingblogs.com,2015-03-19:502551:BlogPost:18730352015-03-19T14:13:21.000ZKatehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/Kate233
<p>According to the US BLS, an average professional stays in a job 4.4 years and is going to have 15-20 jobs over the course of their career. One has only to spend some time looking at profiles on LinkedIn to see this change in effect. Look at a professional's last 10-15 years of their career to see them holding many positions. Compare that to the immediate ten years prior when you may see they held only one or two other positions.</p>
<p>I am an example of this. In the last ten years, I have…</p>
<p>According to the US BLS, an average professional stays in a job 4.4 years and is going to have 15-20 jobs over the course of their career. One has only to spend some time looking at profiles on LinkedIn to see this change in effect. Look at a professional's last 10-15 years of their career to see them holding many positions. Compare that to the immediate ten years prior when you may see they held only one or two other positions.</p>
<p>I am an example of this. In the last ten years, I have held three different positions while in the ten years prior to that, I worked for one company for that ten years. In the course of my career, I have already held 8 different positions and will most likely hold a few more before my working days come to a close.</p>
<p>What this brings to light is that looking for your next job is now a permanent staple of your career planning. If you are going to advance your career, you need to constantly be looking for that next great job opportunity. There is no getting around it. If you are going to get the most out of your career, you need to accept that this is the new normal and the days of life-long jobs are over.</p>
<p>I know some most likely read that last paragraph with dread. The thought of spending hours sifting through job board posting after posting is enough to fill anyone with dread. The tools today are tedious and, quite frankly, ineffective. It's no wonder that a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2012 showed 79% of professionals dis-satisfied with available tools. The alternative is not much better. Post your career profile on public display and turn yourself into your own personal job ad - while also subjecting yourself to the same problems - too many unqualified jobs filling your inbox.</p>
<p>Most of these tools worked well - ten or fifteen years ago - when you might have looked for a job once or twice of your career. Now, however, professionals need to consider permanently looking for their next opportunity as part of their career toolbox.</p>
<p>Things have changed in the work world and, along with it, the importance of a professional in their approach to job search. What are your thoughts?</p>