As digital technology becomes more fully integrated into daily life, the Internet is powerfully impacting the way Americans search for jobs, as well as the way applicants are evaluated for employment.
In pre-Internet days, applicants learned about openings from job boards at specific locations, for example, their college placement office or the lobby of a state agency. Applicants had to call, write to, or visit many different locations to apply for jobs, making for an extremely time-consuming and cumbersome process. The positive side to the physical job search was the possibility of actual contact with an employer. Even if all the applicant did was call a prospective employer and ask if they were hiring, or drop off a resume, there was the chance of making a positive impression on someone in office and perhaps getting an interview.
The Internet offers a very different experience. An applicant can search for jobs from the comfort of his or her own home. It's easy to google a corporation to learn about company culture and current openings, or find jobs through aggregate web sites such as Indeed or SimplyHired. Although going through the registration process with prospective employers can be tedious, with multiple log-ins, passwords, and profiles to manage, the experience of applying for a job without leaving the convenience of your home can be deceptively encouraging. It's simple to visit 5 or 10 sites a day, fill out web application forms, and sit back with a false sense of well-being. But once you realize that the average applicant will receive perhaps one response for every 10 jobs applied to, despair can set in.
Don't panic. Here are some pointers to make the digital world work in favor of your job search.
- Create a web presence using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. As more and more employers use these sites to screen prospective employees, it's important to identify yourself as a participator in today's world.
- Be aware of the public nature of your postings on social networking sites, and make a positive web presence. This goes beyond just making sure you have no potentially offensive material posted on your profile. Take advantage of the opportunity to present yourself as intelligent and articulate.
- Join business oriented social networking groups such as LinkedIn. This is a natural extension of business and personal contacts to the web, and allows employers to get a quick and positive idea of you.
- Refine your resume so that information can be correctly parsed for the employer's database. This will save you the time and effort of having to clean up information fields before submitting your application on-line.
- Surf the web to learn about a company before writing and submitting your cover letter. A relevant, targeted cover letter may be your best shot at getting the job you're after.