Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Search by algorithm

Instead of searching inside monster / career builder - depend on your own search skills - Search for keywords using Google or bing - sometimes, employers post their jobs only in the forums or some closed community groups but some powerful search algorithms pick that up

Try your sample search terms like : Business Analyst required / Startup is hiring / We are hiring and always search upto 3 pages in the search results, since the first page is for people who pay for SEO/SEM

Also if you have some time, learn to tap into open source search algorithms and try to query for the job you wanted. Its not hard, think of using open sources search algorithms.

Keep your adrenaline high -

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Job Search - Expand the pie

Always expand your job search strategy and try from various angles which will increase your chances of finding your dream job or even the job which will make you happy.

This should be the order in which you should search for jobs
1. Past Employers - Talk to all of your past employers and express a strong interest in them.

2. Friends network - Tap into your current set of friends who can refer you to the companies they work for - Try reaching out to weak connections as well since we are all here to help each other during times where we need the most

3. Company websites - Pick the top 20 companies you would like to work for, and directly apply for the positions you would like to be considered for. Write strong cover letters, find out more about the hiring teams, and try and reach out through email to let them know that you applied there.

4. Recruiters/Agencies - Beware they might mislead you - there are 100's of companies in this and do your research and find out which company is engaged with what staffing firm and reach out to them to get your foot in.

4. Networking - this is the time to network and make new relationships, since you are applying to new companies, you need to make your presence felt before they consider your resume, so start reaching out to new people, make new connection, attend new conferences, and get connected. and follow step 2.

5. Job Boards - Its easy to get lost into job boards. Pick two of the following sites and stick to it for a while. Every website speaks a language - understand how to extract maximum benefit out of each site.

a. LinkedIn
b. Indeed.com(all jobs)
c. Simplyhired.com(all jobs)
d. Monster.com
e. Career Builder

6. Cold calls / Cold emails - This is the time to try your luck Pick some companies and start calling them, and see if they would let you talk to the HR managers / some decision makers (know their name before you call) and connect with them, 90% will say no and hang up on you, but you need that 10% - If you call 10 people, there is some chance that one person will be kind enough to guide you to enlightenment and show you the right directions.

7. Be prepared for volunteer work, short term contract work or temporary assignments, remember companies like to offer candidates who they know very well - So this is the first step in the right direction.

Increase your skill-sets, adapt to different things, learn to love new industries, introspect and gain insights into different jobs, and see if you can expand on your interest. See job descriptions of atleast 10 different job title and see if you are capable of handling those(most of us are) and if you think you might like it, start approaching those industries as well

Expand your pie.

2 steps to summarize.

1. Define your space
2. Hunt for your space.

Twitter search

Twitter is a very valuable resource for job search - How?
Its very simple - just goto Twitter homepage, and type your job title in the search page.

Twitter comes up with all the tweets about this topic and since its very relevant and latest, you can follow people and links that have this valuable information and apply for companies that have been listed

This will give you:
1. Link to the latest job posting in your area
2. Link to some great Recruiters who are tweeting about job postings.
3. An extra avenue for your job search.

Linkedin groups

So if you wanna send messages to anyone in the industry, best way to reach out is LinkedIn groups. Join Groups of your interest, and connect with like minded people - If you are searching for a job, connect with someone, send your message across and put in a word, it always help!

Get back to your fundamentals - If you need something, you need to signal it to the other person - like if you are stuck in an island, you need to show Red flags or light a fire, likewise, in situations where you need to be seen,be visible and connect with a lot of people