A new kind of job hunt

This is not your father’s job hunt.
If you’re looking for a job, prepare to spend a lot of time
sitting at a computer, searching help-wanted postings, filling out
online applications, e-mailing resumes and cover letters – and
networking.
This is not your father’s job hunt.

If you’re looking for a job, prepare to spend a lot of time sitting at a computer, searching help-wanted postings, filling out online applications, e-mailing resumes and cover letters – and networking.

From the store-based computer-application stations now in widespread use by major retailers such as Walmart and Winn-Dixie to software that allows companies to peruse professional social networking sites and electronically review resumes, many employers are turning to automated screening.

Big employers often get too many applicants to handle them all individually. Small employers often don’t have enough human-resources professionals, “and they just don’t have the time” to manually read everything, said Annette Wainey, president-elect of the Central Florida Human Resources Association and human-resources director for Reedy Creek Improvement District near Orlando.

Wainey said the electronic response has been necessary in part because of the crush of applications that the Internet makes possible. Perhaps because e-mailed resumes do not require postage, paper or much individualized effort, far too many appear to be sent, blanketing any and all possible employers.

When they look like they were sent in blindly and don’t focus on specific jobs, “a lot of those go directly into the ‘no’ pile,” she said.

The recession may accelerate employers’ use of electronic recruiting. CareerBuilder recently surveyed employers and found that one in five plans to increase Internet recruitment to reduce costs during the recession, said CareerBuilder senior career adviser Michael Erwin.

Erwin offers job seekers this advice:

• Don’t just consider Internet connections. Don’t forget career centers, newspaper classifieds, phone networks, recruiters, job fairs, and most importantly, friends, family members and colleagues.

• Investigate all Internet sites you can find that might help your job search and post your resume on a variety, including the big, general job-search sites, ones that specialize in your profession and local community-based sites.

“Exploit every angle you can,” Erwin said.

• Register with the sites you are interested in, and post your resume.

• Write online resumes to be clear, short and simple. Focus on quantifiable assets, such as, “I helped my team save this much,” Erwin suggested.

• Borrow words and phrases, particularly references to specific skills, equipment, software or experiences, from the job posting that attracted you. Reuse those exact words and phrases in your resume. Employers that use screening software may be scanning resumes looking for those phrases as keywords.

• Join, post your resume and profile on, and stay active on a variety of social-networking sites, especially those geared toward your profession and city or in interest groups that could support you.

“For the current circumstances with the economy, I feel that social networking is probably the No. 1 way to just get contacts and create relationships and get your name out there and make connections,” Wainey said.

But be careful.

If you already have personal pages created on social networks as MySpace or Facebook, clean them up. Get rid of those embarrassing party pictures and rude or crude references. Make the pages so you wouldn’t mind if prospective employers found them, because there’s a good chance they might.

“I know there are a lot of employers, large employers, very good employers who you would want to work for, who are going out and searching for these Web sites,” Wainey said.

Out of work? Now is the time to consider switching careers.

You might not have any choice, if economics cost you your past job. But even if there are plenty of opportunities in your field, “this is really a great time for people to reassess themselves,” said Christy King, director of Seminole, Fla., Community College’s career-development center.

“You may have a short-term decision to help pay bills, but you need to look at this as a great opportunity,” she said. “The recession will pass. You need to look at where you want to be five years down the road.”

Here’s what she and other counselors suggest people should do if they are considering a career change:

• First, figure out how you and your family will survive on savings, other income or stopgap jobs, and then lay out a plan that starts with that survival strategy.

• Draw up detailed lists of your workplace assets, said Jim Ferruzzi, senior vice president with the human-resources consulting company Right Management. These include your past work experience, skills, talents, past accomplishments, tapped and untapped abilities and education. Rate your strengths and weaknesses.

• Consider your interests, hobbies and activities, and your preferences for locations and work environments. Consider taking an interests or aptitudes assessment test, available through such companies as Birkman International, or counseling offices at colleges or trade schools.

Then, “Sit down with a cup of coffee and a pad of paper, or a computer, and say: What are my goals, all the way around? If I could design a perfect job for me, what would it have in it? What are the values most important to me?” said Gloria Bullman, a psychologist and executive with the international human-resources consulting firm BeamPines.

• Use your own or the commercial assessment inventories to consider what you would enjoy.

“If you’re going to switch careers, switch to a career that you have a lot of enthusiasm for,” said Richard Bolles, author of “What Color Is Your Parachute?” a job hunters’ guide that focuses on career changes. “Employers will be won over more by enthusiasm than experience. Nobody wants to hire someone who is competent but bored.”

• Call people in the field you’re interested in and ask them about their jobs. Ask whether you might shadow them for a day.

• If you need time for additional education or a new-job search, try to find a stopgap job that is at least in the general direction of your new career goals, so that you do not waste the experience entirely.

“The bottom line is we all do what we need to do to make ends meet to get by,” Ferruzzi said. Still, “a person should really consider what kinds of career choices they make, because you can end up in a career field that makes it more difficult for you.”

But don’t let your stopgap job last several years, Bolles cautioned. If you do, “you’re not using the gifts, and you start to feel miserable.”