How to use internet to your advantage in job search

November 4, 2013 | Filed under: Personal Finance | Author: Editor

A recruiter takes less than eight seconds to shortlist or reject your resume. To ensure your answers are seen instantly, use a standard CV template, which can be found online.
Employment for life, is old hat. Now, people look for a job change every few years and need options to keep their boats afloat. The Net has become the favoured tool to find new jobs. Here’s how you can navigate through it to nail your next job.
Build your boat
As a first step, use the following questions to craft your CV: what do you have to offer that the world is ready to pay for? How will you signal this to employers? What jobs fit in your career path? A recruiter takes less than eight seconds to shortlist or reject your resume. He wants to know what you did earlier, and how successfully.
Don’t use fancy fonts, colours, adjectives, bombastic words or objective statements. Do you want to upload your resume on open job platforms or only on networking sites? Know that your employer too has access to job portals and is probably tracking your activities. Google yourself to see what potential employers can find out about you. To avoid sharing your personal life with professional contacts, use a Facebook account with a nickname.
Lastly, clean up your LinkedIn account and you are ready to cast off. Sail far and deep. The better your research and analysis, the higher the rewards. If you are keen on a single industry, look online for research reports and news, pore through annual reports and websites of competing firms, and details of industry events. Do the same with its customers and vendors.
Analyse the information and guess how things will pan out in two or three years for various players. You will have a perspective of where the opportunities may lie. If you opt to remain in the same function, update yourself on the growing industries that need professionals in your line. You will identify gaps in your skill set which you can fill later via training or experience. You will also learn important keywords; add them to your resume.