There are many tools available for today’s job seeker
➔ Certainly when speaking of the current job market, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Thank you, Mr. Dickens.
No doubt that the down sides are many. Automated Tracking Systems (ATS) that eliminate job candidates long before any human has the opportunity to scan a resume or cover letter. Impersonal video interviews which restrict your opportunity to sell yourself. Remote jobs that increase the number of candidates for a job by several fold. These are just some of challenges facing today’s job seekers.
The flip side
If these are also the “best of times,” there must be some good scenarios in there somewhere, right? Of course.
These new tools are job boards which conveniently list hundreds of jobs – most of which you can apply for electronically from the comfort of your own home – while still dressed in your pajamas. There must be progress in there somewhere.
There are tools such as Glassdoor which enable a job seeker to learn some of the inside scoop on a company – sometimes from current or former employees. There’s insight which was rarely available to any job seeker only 20 years ago.
Then there’s the 600-pound job search gorilla in the room – LinkedIn. Promote yourself online while barely lifting a finger. LinkedIn enables you to be found online by people you don’t know or to whom you have no connection. There are times when job seekers are found by potential employers who have never advertised or mentioned the job to anyone.
The bottom line is that there are more tools available to today’s job seeker than one can realistically imagine.
Unfortunately – you knew there was bad news coming – all these tools have one thing in common. None of them are in any way, shape or form effective if you don’t use them. Merely having a LinkedIn profile probably will not, in and of itself, get you a job.
Whether it’s LinkedIn, Google Marketplace, Monster.com, or anything else, it is imperative for you to take the initiative, to pick up the ball and run with it.