The Most Effective Ways to Look for a Job

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Wow that was incredibly useless.

Gwen of CA 11:31AM February 06, 2013

Having been a Staffing Manager at the largest agency in the world (a Fortune 500 company), I will attest to the fact that very few job positions listed on sites such as Monster are actually filled. It is a little known fact to the general public that the majority of these postings are made simply to draw attention to the company and/or the hiring agency, and that these positions may well have been filled even before they are posted. However, by posting a single job opportunity on such a site, the response from prospective applicants will be huge, thereby supplying the staffing agency (in my case) with many new potential job candidates that can then be "filtered" and considered for placement on other jobs known only to the agency and the hiring company.
So, even though one is quite unlikely to be considered for the specific job advertised, the likelihood is that the applicant's resume and credentials will in fact be looked at by someone with hiring "connections," and that if the application/resume is strong there is a real possibility that the applicant will be contacted by someone in my position who will then work to place said applicant in another available position.
I recommend that anyone applying for these posted positions might do themselves a greater service by going directly to a staffing company, which in turn has the resources and contacts to find a job "match" for the applicant. By accepting ANY position in a given company, the odds of one eventually being considered for that "ultimate" job are greatly enhanced. Get on board with an established company in any capacity, and one will make the contacts necessary to reach his or her dream position...

Charles Robertson of CA 1:03PM June 28, 2011

If you want to find a job, ignore the job boards entirely. The best way to land a job is to arrive at the company you wish to work for and ask to speak with someone in the human resources department. Arrive dressed well with a stack of resumes to hand out. This will set you very far apart from the 3000 other people who clicked "Apply Now" and did nothing further.

JR in HR of IL 7:23PM June 12, 2011

A career construction supervisor and builder of residential and commercial projects with up-dated skills in computer technologies seeking a stable employment opportunity with an established firm.

richard price of FL 8:59AM May 16, 2011

If chances are slim to respond to job advertisements, then why you think company's advertise, spending hundreds of dollars ? Some of you people give un-founded advise to show you know a lot but you people don't really give good sensible answers.
Most of your advises are for first timers minimum wages jobs, or as far as net working for McDonald, Subways or Department Stores like Sears, Wall Mart" type of jobs. Nothing for a nice decent progressive type of office jobs.
Be sincere, if you give advise then better be honest and direct your advise for Office or Government jobs, not odd jobs of minimum wages to work in restaurants, shops etc. for few months without making a good careers.
One disgusted reader of your columns. From Canada.

Sarah 1:10PM March 28, 2011

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Heather. As a student graduating in May who is currently applying for entry-level position, I have adopted many of these methods when applying.
I have found networking to play a huge plus factor when trying to land a position with companies. And to add to your thinking outside of the box, creating an online portfolio with samples of your work, then sending that a long with your resume to the HR manager could really help. It will also make you stand-out amongst the crowd. I highly recommend it! An easy-to-use website builder I found is wix.com.

Holly Kleese of OH 11:20AM March 16, 2011

Love this article! Excellent advice!
In addition to what you mentioned Alexis, just two points I'd like to add -
1. Job seekers ignore their online reputations, and they think being "invisible" is good.
A Microsoft-funded study by CrossTab last year showed that employers research (aka "Google") job applicants nearly 80% of the time (and another study determined that 75% of medium and large employers have policies requiring recruiters to do online research about applicants!).
But, less than 30% of job seekers worried about what would be found.
And I find that many of them think that being invisible is GOOD - because it protects their privacy.
BUT, being invisible is *VERY* BAD because:
* It makes the job seeker vulnerable to mistaken identity!
Someone with the same name could have posted lots of bad photos of themselves or be convicted of a crime or thousands of other things that would make an employer eliminate the applicant.
And the employer won't know it isn't the applicant they're reviewing - how would they if the applicant has nothing visible about them online?
* It makes the job seeker look out-of-touch and out-of-date.
These days, employers do not want to hire someone who isn't comfortable in this new (relatively) environment and doesn't know how to leverage it.
2. Job seekers (and people with jobs!) ignore the power of LinkedIn.
If an active job seeker does not have a 100% complete LinkedIn Profile with at least 100 connections, they are at a big disadvantage.
A study by Jobvite.com last year showed that nearly 90% of employers are recruiting via "social media" and the social network most popular (with recruiters) is LinkedIn.

Susan P Joyce of MA 11:06AM March 16, 2011

Dont just rely on the big job boards. Even though sites like Indeed say "one search, all jobs" there are hundreds of niche and local job boards that they do not crawl so you still have to find those local and industry sites that have jobs too.

Christopher of CT 8:15AM March 16, 2011

Great advice. Particularly agree that growing your network is an important way to find the job you are looking for. Having a clear goal and being able to articulate your value when you're networking will help that effort. Thank you for steering people away from a random job search, toward a more thoughtful approach. I strongly recommend applying a strategy. Here is my blog on how to develop one:
http://blog.jobfully.com/2011/01/job-search-strategy/ With a plan in place, your efforts will be much more effective!

Carrie Krueger of WA 2:11PM March 15, 2011