How to Take the Work Out of Finding Work
NEW JOB SEARCH SHORTCUT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
No one loves searching for a new job. It’s fair to say most people hate it. Searching for a new job using a traditional approach can be like a fulltime job itself, one that has to be crammed into what is often an already packed schedule.
Women, who are still particularly prone to doing it all, are especially challenged. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual Time Use Survey states that women continue to do most of the childcare and household activities, which includes housework, cooking, cleaning up after cooking, and generally taking care of the household. The needle hasn’t moved much since 2003.
Job boards are great. And job search aggregators have helped over the past couple of decades. But despite these advancements, job seekers are still left with searching across multiple job search boards and company websites to find the right opportunities. Then there is the time-consuming application process of repetitively uploading resumes, completing online applications on myriad applicant tracking systems, searching for the right networking connections to match the opportunities and trying to track progress and processes.
So how can you cut corners to alleviate stress and the overwhelming time drain?
Job Search Options
Easy-apply options with a click or simple swipe seem to be a step in the right direction. These approaches generally enable the job seeker to apply by completing a few basic fields and using a resume already loaded in the system. Others provide options to use a social media profile. Both are quick and easy, but both have drawbacks. Social media profiles and resumes imported through easy-apply mechanisms often arrive in the recruiter’s inbox as ill-formatted, text-only files. They are not the best first impression you want to make and may not highlight your skills and accomplishments.
Some job seekers look to headhunters to help in their job search. That’s one way to cut some of the job search work. But unless you are a high-level professional that will deliver a nice commission into the pocket of the headhunter, you’ll be hard pressed to find a headhunter to work for you. Moreover, most don’t work for the job seeker anyway. They get paid by the hiring company. As a result, they are not highly incentivized to work solely on your behalf.
Certainly letting your network know you are looking for a new job helps spread the word, and you want to use your contacts in your job search. However, exercise caution if you are trying to keep your job search confidential. Also keep in mind that while you can advise your network that you are available for hire, it can fall on deaf ears if there isn’t an open position that matches what you are seeking. A more effective networking effort results from locating an open position and finding the right contacts at the company that is hiring for the position.
New Job Search Options
You can also explore using one of the emerging technology solutions, such as Fridayd, that are eliminating the lion’s share of job search work. Depending on the solution, this approach enables you to free yourself from searching for the right positions, to applying and submitting resumes, to discovering networking connections related to opportunities applied for, and to tracking the entire job search process. Everything is done for you.
A key advantage of a complete do-it-for-me solution, like Fridayd, for instance, is the in-depth job search criteria feedback. That makes it possible for the job seeker to get more highly relevant job search results. Additionally, users complete an application once when they register, and that’s it. Using that data, applications can then be completed on the job seeker’s behalf at the job seeker’s request. The company also recommends networking connections related to jobs of interest, and jobs need to be reviewed only once per week, versus everyday, helping to shave time and make a search more efficient.
Benefits of The New Job Search Options
Eliminating the heavy lifting for the job seeker in this way can amount to time savings of as much as 40 or more hours a month in job search time. That’s time that can be spent more productively networking, preparing for interviews, working on career development, spending time with family and friends or pursuing personal interests.
Turning over your complete job search, including application completion, is a new concept but one that makes sense. It amounts to offloading the tedious, administrative aspects of landing a new job while allowing you to focus on what matters most. That’s a shortcut and life hack anyone can embrace.
Image credits.