With a plethora of online job sites and company job boards calling out “CLICK HERE TO APPLY”, do you really know which one might work for you?
Hire Power is here to tell you that we are going to share with you (for free), our new, wholistic How-To-Guide. With more than thirty years’ worth of knowledge about helping job seekers finding jobs, changing jobs, even changing careers. and which tools and what resources are best suited to do so, this how-to guide is useful to all applicants, from entry- highly experienced executives.
We find that applicants do not understand the inner workings of the recruitment process, so by explaining each step in more detail we hope to reduce your frustration and clarify any vagaries on the matter.
Traditional job-hunting activities no longer work. The world we live in has changed irrevocably, calling for a more creative and agile approach to finding your next role.
Meet Paul, an IT Engineer who has just received his newly crafted and recruitment friendly resumé but now does not know what exactly to do with it. He knows that he would like to gain employment within a similar environment but with more opportunities for growth in his field. Therefore, there are a few ways in which Paul could get his resumé noticed or seen.
What should he think about before starting his online job search?
4 Elements to Consider Before Applying Online:
- Where might future hiring organisations and external recruitment firms place job adverts? Olde school national newspapers like The Sunday Times or Cape Argus, or the Radio, or even university Job Boards on Campus. Often (but certainly not limited to), hiring companies will choose the digital route. In the case of C-suite appointments, these are almost always done on a headhunting basis.
- What other types of roles might be a match to your profile. Consider different job titles. G: Head of Customer Experience vs Head of Customer Service, or Customer Services Agent vs Call Centre Service Consultant.
- How much time do you have at your disposal to spend online? Some portals call for one single upload of your CV in. Pdf format. Others require you to first complete an application field for contact details and then continue with a time-consuming upload done a section at a time.
- What additional documentation might be requested in support of your online application (cover letter, copies of qualifications, referee contact details, published articles / editorials documenting success and accolades etc.). It would be a complete waste of your time and data resources if you got the end of the upload not realising that you need to upload a photograph of yourself, or your LinkedIn profile link, and then did not have it nearby and in the correct format.
Potential employers will place their job adverts across an array of career portals, scouting for top talent across distinctly different talent pools. This short article offers a quick run through of where to start job hunting online.
LINKEDIN:
LinkedIn is the largest professional networking platform of the 21st century with over 760 million users in two hundred countries and regions around the world, according to (Osman, 2020). Of these 760 million users, 40% access the platform daily. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to ensure you are receiving the best value from your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn gives you free reign on connecting with professionals in the same career space as yourself and unlocks opportunities of connecting the Hiring Managers and Recruiters who could assist in placing you in the right organisation. Another pro of using this platform is that employers pay to post job advertisements, making for better quality jobs and minimal spam or fraudulent job posts. Perhaps consider enlisting assistance on how to make your LinkedIn profile represent exactly what is on your resumé and how best to attract the attention from the likes of potential employers or head-hunters. Kirsty Geyser is really good at this. Click here for assistance in helping you fine-tune your LinkedIn profile.
INDEED:
Indeed is a job board which offers users free access to available jobs and has the most job listings in the world compared to other boards or platforms. As a senior-level professional, this job board allows you to not only build a profile and attach your resume on the platform, but to apply directly to jobs within your criteria. You could search for jobs within your scope of work and within certain geographical locations which makes finding your perfect job that much easier. Unfortunately, the only con would be the fact that you are often redirected to neighbouring websites to apply for vacancies, but this could be helpful if you are wanting to explore more job opportunities on other sites and career portals.
RECRUITMENT /SEARCH FIRMS (HEADHUNTERS):
Gone are the days where you had to do it all by yourself and applying for jobs felt like a lonely task. Recruiters like us exist to find people for vacancies, so why not make yourself easily located? The Executive and Senior-Level professional should keep tabs on Head-hunter job boards and should make “friends” with a Recruitment Specialist with your best interest at heart. That will ensure you always have first pickings when it comes to newly received job opportunities with global clients. Hire Power is the African continent’s licensed partner of just such a global network and operates as Talentor South Africa, part of Talentor Internationals. Contact Hire Power owner Jeannine Dickie for details.
COMPANY CAREER PORTALS
In the early 2000’s, a job seeker would seek their nearest internet café, print their retro resumé, and hit the streets to hand deliver their CV’s to potential employers or send them a fax. Those days are gone, and what used to be the streets and fax machines, are now simplified career portals on your favourite organisation’s website. A simple way to apply for vacancies is to simply go to the websites of organisations in your industry, register on their career portals and apply to specific vacancies where you believe you could be of value. This gives you direct access to the company’s recruitment process but at the risk of ending up in file thirteen after an influx of candidates like yourself apply for the same position in this manner. This is how your newly crafted resumé will assist you to get past all the bots and ATS’s and ensure that your resumé comes out on top of the pile.
JOB SITES SUCH AS JOBVINE, CAREER JUNCTION, CAREERS 24 AND PNET:
Established in 2009 Jobvine is an online job portal in South Africa, as are PNET, Career Junction and Careers 24. The big challenge with these sites is to keep you resumé and contact information current and updated lest recruiters crawling through these sites in search of suitable matches, become bored or disheartened at not being able to match you to their job requisitions, or worse be unable to contact you. This happens more than you think! Furthermore, if you are NO LONGER job hunting, it is best to completely remove your profile from the site to prevent it from becoming “stale”.
We hope this article sends a “ping” to those of you who are considering a change in job. Feel free to contact Kirsty Geyser for more information on Mid-level job searches.
Click here if you missed the article on how to craft a compelling future-fit resumé.
Written by Kirsty Geyser and Jeannine Dickie