Looking for a new job can be either stressful or exciting, and a lot of it comes down to the tools that you use. In many ways, looking for a job is often about the “shotgun” effect: you need to send out as many resumes as possible so that you can land interviews. And it all starts with your resume…
Resume Building Tools
There are two audiences you need to have in mind when building a modern resume: computers and people. A significant portion of businesses today use automated tools to scan through resumes, looking for certain keywords. Once that initial scan has been completed, a human will be looking at your resume. This is when it’s important for your resume to be concise and attractive. But how do you make sure that your resume stands out?
- Resume.com. Boasting over a million published resumes, Resume.com walks you through the process of designing and sharing your resume from scratch.
- DoYouBuzz. DoYouBuzz is another popular and easy resume building option, which lets you import directly from Facebook. It has premium features available and over two dozen attractive resume templates.
Social Networking Tools
According to Forbes, networking is still the best way to find a job, with over 41% reporting that networking was successful for them. Today, people rarely network in person. Most networking is done through social media sites and other Internet-based communications, such as email.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the leading social network for professionals and has been growing rapidly in the past few years. Through LinkedIn, you can connect with current and past colleagues, supervisors and companies, get your skills endorsed, upload your resume and even search for jobs.
- WordPress. If you’re in a creative or technically related field, you need to have your own website on your business cards. Having an email on your own personal domain will help, too. WordPress is one of the fastest, easiest ways to set up a website without having to learn an entirely new skill.
Online Classifieds
Once you have your resume and your connections sorted out, it’s time to actually find the jobs. In the olden days, you would turn to a newspaper. Today, most businesses place their ads online, and usually on three specific boards: Careerbuilder, Monster and Indeed.
- Careerbuilder. If you’re looking for high-powered, high-salaried positions, Careerbuilder is usually your best bet. The jobs posted on Careerbuilder tend to be more serious and skilled in nature.
- Monster. Monster has a slightly larger volume compared to Careerbuilder and more entry-level positions available. If you’re looking for part-time work, entry-level work or internships, Monster is probably the one for you.
- Indeed. Indeed tends to have more atypical, high-churn positions, as they are the most affordable out of the three for employers to post on. If you’re looking for temp jobs, Indeed may be ideal.
Now that you’ve got the tools down, all you need to do is develop a process. Finding the job of your dreams requires dedication and persistence, but the above tools will make it a great deal easier. Just keep going, don’t get discouraged, and follow every lead.
