Web 2.0 and Finding Jobs Online
Posted by Paul, January-4-2010
Not so long ago, even at the beginning of the new millennium, letters where still kings of communication, and we were perfectly prepared to wait the week required for a response. At the start of 2010 the world of communication is a very different place. Clients can contact me 24/7 by email, mobile phone or instant messenger, I can receive information regarding what my favorite celebrity is eating for breakfast as they are eating for breakfast as they are eating it, direct to my mobile phone. Equally I can find out what someone I’ve not met more than once got up to on New Years.
This prevalance of Social Networking and communication is becoming increasingly important for recruiters, and clients increasingly want to make the best use of referral schemes over the traditional methods of recruitment/ 83% of adults regularly use social networks, which now takes up 93% more time than in 2006 according to bizreport making the need for individuals to capitalize on this increasingly apparent.
This can often be a bit bewildering, tricky and time consuming, so we have put together a few tips and ideas to help you get thinking about how the new world of communication is important for your job hunt.
Finding jobs online has long been the norm, but in the forever evolving realm of the internet the world of online recruitment is too changing. Searching through an online jobs-board is useful, but not always fruitful. According to an article on Mashable.com the amount of jobs posted on job boards has been decreasing at over 13% in recent times, making this an ever more prevalent issue. This is a quick guide to get you thinking about how web 2.0 could help you with your career, getting you ahead of the game in these tough times.
For some this may seem a little confusing or scary: Social networking, online referrals and self branding may sound a bit scary for some. However, all it’s really about is building your network and getting yourself ‘out there’ online.
The traditional way to find jobs online was to apply for roles, not really knowing if you where actually going to enjoy the role. Whilst it would be naive to say these days are over, Web 2.0 has bought for many the opportunity to build a personal brand that attracts employers to them.
This does not mean you need to be an online guru, but it’s important to make yourself aware of these technologies and how recruitment fits into them.
Web 2.0 is not a technical term like it sounds, more a buzz word that refers to an idea or attitude. This being that the internet has moved on from its roots towards a wealth of rich interactive content composed and shared through a system of participation and community.
This starts with your CV, make sure your CV is clear, this may sound obvious and nothing to do with new technology, more common sense, but the majority of sites, including MPB allow employers to search CVs to find candidates there interested in. Make sure all the terminology in your CV is your industries most used. – take a look at some job descriptions in your field; does the text in your CV correspond well to requirements? For example, rather than putting experienced with Microsoft Office put Experienced in using Microsoft Word, Excell and Acesss as an employer may be looking for someone with particular knowledge of one application. Mypeoplebiz also allows you to write an anonymous personal profile which is searchable by employers, and you can find a guide to getting this right here.
To really participate in web 2.0 You need to be a “prosumer”, a content producer, not just a consumer of online content. This doesn’t have to be difficult and you can spend as little or as much time as you have depending on what you want to do.
Whether you want to go all out and create a blog, or maybe your one for a YouTube video or a flickr photo album or all of the above. It is up to you and what you feel up to doing. If your currently unemployed this a good project to undertake as a way of building your IT skills whist doing something that may help you get that much craved job.
Blogs
If writing is something you like, start a blog about your professional expertise and experience, this works particularly well for media and marketing jobs and has become almost essential requirement for some roles. You can include photos, music and video in this too, bringing together all your online work.
Creating a blog will prove your passion and understanding for the subject matter. Mentioning this in your CV or Profile will highlight your passion; recruiters are likely to check it out. If they like what they see they will want to hire you, not just on your apparent professional ability but it is a great way to make you personable, make your blog get them like you.
-Making a blog doesn’t have to be difficult, give it a try with blogger.com or wordpress.com, both free.
Video
A new trend is the talking CV or video resume, this can be a great way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed, but only do this your feel your are confident enough, otherwise it may do more harm than good. In the New Year Mypeoplebiz will enable you to attach your talking CV to a job application and employers also will have the ability to create clips explain the role to you and introducing the work environment.
Photography
One of the simplest things you could do is create an album on flickr. Flickr is a photo sharing site where you can upload your photography to discuss, share and interact with other photographers. If you have a digital camera or a mobile phone camera, get snapping!
This will be great for personal interests or hobbies section of your CV, even better say your applying for a role in a electrical retailer, you can prove your interest and understanding of the technology, cameras, computers and the internet just by creating photo album online.
Going social and Building your network
So you’ve got Facebook and reconnected with some old school friends and laughed at some embarrassing photos of yourself, but how can social networking sites help get you a job?
Firstly, it’s an excellent way to bring everything together and publicize anything you may of created online as outlined above, also make sure all your profiles are linked together, e,g there is a link to your twitter on your facebook profile etc. You may also want to think about how employer friendly you profile is, and remove content or change security settings to fit as it’s reported that many employers search social networking profiles of prospective employers to gain a greater insight.
Secondly, if you haven’t already done it, join the professional social networks. Primarily this is LinkedIn, but there others, namely xing.com that could also prove useful. Perhaps not as fun as the other social networks but definitely a useful tool for building your professional reputation and finding jobs. Start by adding all your contacts from outlook, Gmail etc you can build up from this point on. There are simple functions to do this on LinkedIn as well as an Outlook LinkedIn Application. The more people you are connected to the easier this is because you’re only able to reach other people in your network (1st 2nd and 3rd degree connections).
Recruiters are starting to use LinkedIn (as well as others social networks) as a serious source for candidates, and is a great place to find jobs online, so complete as much as your profile as possible. The mypeoplebiz LinkedIn page publishes all the jobs on the site, including referral bonuses, you can refer anyone or people can refer you.
Further to this there are thousands of jobs advertised on linked in, look through groups, almost all of them have a jobs tab. More important advertise yourself, get involved join groups and conversations this way you can make connections and get noticed, Avoid sounding like a sales pitch, people will tune out. Stick to the rules of the group – it will be tempting to post in more popular sections of groups to get more attention to your message but these groups are often well policed and is likely to get you kicked out of the group if you do it more than once.
Evaluate regularly, how much time are you contributing to this compared to the delivery, are there any additional bonuses that you have discovered.
However, be patient this will not change your circumstances overnight, try to have fun with it and make it something you enjoy.
Let us know of your web 2.0 activities and any experiences you have!
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