The 4 Best Tips for Using a Job Board
You've posted your resume on all the most popular job boards. It's been weeks and you've heard zilch in response. It's justifiably frustrating.
Your resume--no matter how amazing--is just one of thousands virtually submitted in the job portal, also known as, "the black hole."
1. Filter your search by "recently posted." You'll find that applying to jobs by filtering the job board by "recently posted" will likely give you faster callbacks. Of course, this is not a license to rule out relevance altogether. The idea is to look for recently posted jobs for which you're qualified.
"Jobs on job boards may have been posted on the company job/career page first before being placed on the larger job boards, meaning that they have been in the "search" phase for some time," says Tiffani Murray, human resources technology consultant at resume service company Personality on a Page. "The older the job the more likely the recruiter already has a pool of candidates or that the job may have already been filled and just not taken off the board."
2. Take advantage of job alerts. When it comes to resumes, timing is everything. While you check consistently the recently posted jobs that match your qualifications, make sure you set up job alerts as well. This feature is available on nearly all boards. So, the next time there's a new opening for your desired job title, you'll get an email instantly. While you're job searching, it helps to turn on your email notification sound so that you can respond to important emails ASAP.
3. Avoid applying to multiple jobs in one company. Recruiters and hiring managers see a red flag when a candidate applies to too many jobs in varying departments. Murray suggests you apply only to positions that are most relevant to you. "Having worked with recruiters at the same company and having managed the back end of applicant tracking systems, it's very easy to identify the candidates who apply to anything and everything," she says.
Adam Singh, CEO and co-founder of the online social recruiting app InternEdge, advises against applying to more than one position at a company. "The job seeker should customize his or her resume, profile, online board, etc., to match the required skills for a position," he says. "If he or she applies for more than one, they start to lose credibility."
4. Use relevant keywords for applicant tracking systems. Job boards are huge, and the only way for employers to sort through everyone is by using an applicant tracking system. It's a tool "designed specifically to eliminate unqualified applicants quickly," says Sudy Bharadwaj, co-founder and CEO of Jackalope Jobs. It does this by automatically weeding out resumes that don't mention the specific skills needed for an open position. For instance, a financial analyst should include acronyms for all database and analysis software, like Oracle Financials and Access, that he knows how to use and feels might be necessary for a job.
To ensure that you're not screened out of a job, make sure you include keywords from the job posting (as long as you're qualified to list them, of course).
Ritika Trikha is a writer for CareerBliss, an online career community dedicated to helping people find happiness in the workplace. Check out CareerBliss for millions of job listings, company reviews, salary information, and a free career happiness assessment.
