How Will You Find Your Next Position?

That’s no rhetorical question. Beginning your job search is a complex proposition, besotted as we all are with resources, sites, and services hoping to help us change positions, make new contacts, and get our interest meaningfully recognized and reciprocated.

For instance, should you begin developing a relationship with a recruiting agency? What about approaching contacts via LinkedIn? Should you use CareerBuilder or Indeed or any of the other myriad job boards? Are industry and networking associations worth the time and energy of membership?

“Yes!” to everything! We want to expand our search as widely as possible. To that end, let’s discuss all these various options with further specificity: How they’re useful, and what a job seeker might gain from them.

Recruiting Agencies/Search Firms: Perhaps owing to my years spent in the recruiting industry, I believe that strong relationships with recruiters are key to landing a great position. Recruiting is just targeted networking, and submitting yourself to that network will lead to familiarization with and introduction to industry players. Such relationships may not be necessary for you to get somewhere, but they're absolutely vital for getting you exactly where you want to go. Plus, through the honest conversations you’ll have with recruiters, you will gain a deeper understanding of your career goals and what you seek from a future position.

LinkedIn: Serious candidates use LinkedIn. It’s non-negotiable. Too much recruiting, networking, and outreach happens on LinkedIn that it’s actually negligent to keep off it. Nowhere else is it easier to explore a company’s make-up, see how many employees they have, their job titles and locations, and reach out to useful individuals. Likewise, nowhere is it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to find your contact information or get a comprehensive sense of your qualifications. That said, your success on LinkedIn depends on how seriously you use it.  If your profile is consistently kept up-to-date, proofread for grammar, and creative, and if you continue building connections throughout your target industry, you will find great success here. LinkedIn has a rather exemplary job board, to boot. 

Indeed/Glassdoor: Though these online job boards lack a social media component, the advantage to using them — i.e. uploading your resumé, creating alerts for freshly-posted positions, and applying directly to jobs listed — is the enormous volume of positions available. It might take time to sort through the (sometimes overwhelming) glut of opportunities listed here, and many postings are out-of-date, but these sites are great for exposing positions at smaller companies or ones offering nontraditional contracts.

CareerBuilder/Ziprecriuter: While similar to the above job boards, these sites also do offer employer-facing value. Attaching a resumé to these sites allows employers to find you without necessarily requiring you to send an application. While this method yields great success for some, there is a certain amount of overpromising and under-delivering in the way these sites advertise their services. These tools are more powerful the more competitive your resumé reads. So if you’re highly-qualified, trust these tools to attract attention. If not? You might want to go elsewhere.

Networking/Industry Associations: Applicants often recoil when I recommend seeking out and joining such associations. But many companies hire liberally from within these networks, and few other places allow you to meet as many industry-relevant contacts. Even if membership does not earn you any specific opportunities, it’s often worthwhile for all the knowledge and networking you’ll gain. 

Keep in mind, this list is not meant to be catholic, but to give you a general idea how/where your job search will happen. I encourage you to experiment with everything listed. Worthwhile job opportunities are finicky and unpredictable; they often come from unexpected sources. The goal is to put yourself in the way of as much potential opportunity as possible. 

      So get your resumé polished, and be ready to treat all conversations, even introductory calls, as formal interviews. Don’t waste a single opportunity. Contact me, Nancy, at www.idealinterviewco.com, and, together, we can pump up your online profiles, perfect your resumé, and prepare you for all the important meetings, networking events, and conversations you’ll soon be having.