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By Dan Colby, Solutions Specialist
For
most of us in the IT world, the job boards are a
double-edged sword that is often both sharp and
painful. In the following paragraphs, I will
attempt to demystify the boards, how they work
and how they are used.
In
order to understand what it takes to master the
boards, you must first understand the
structure. In general, job boards have two
basic components. The first and most
misunderstood is the job postings component. In
theory, companies have positions available, they
post jobs, candidates submit their resumes, and
the company hires the best candidate.
The reality of the situation is much different,
many jobs are non-existent (sometimes
they are wishful thinking, sometimes search
firms are trying to build a database of
resources in an area where they expect to get
client requirements), misrepresented or actually
a blend of two or more jobs (keep in mind that
it is expensive to post a job, so companies will
list the qualifications for two or more jobs as
if they were one, knowing that candidates
appropriate for both will apply).
The
second component of the job boards is the resume
database. The key to getting called upon as a
result of your resume being posted has more to
do with the content of the resume than about
what your experience or certifications are. Let
me explain; for those of you who have had
anything to do with SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) of web sites, you will have a head
start on this. As a recruiter, the way I find
your resume is through a keyword search (think
of Google). Conceptually, since every system
will be slightly different, when you login, you
are presented with a form, and the first question
(typically) on the form is ‘how far back in time
do you want to look?’ Most job boards default
at 30 days.
Reality Check: if you
don’t post your resume every 29 days, your
resume isn’t going to be seen very often.
The
next question is ‘what keywords are you
interested in?'
Reality Check: if you
don’t optimize YOUR keywords, you are in
trouble.
Next, the form typically asks about things like
education, job type and experience. Lastly it
asks about geography. As a recruiter, you can
select either a state, a city and a state, or a
zip code and the option to limit the responses
to the number of miles from that zip code (5,
10, 25, 50, 100) - I use zip codes 99% of the
time.
Now
that you understand what the recruiter does to
find your resume, let’s go back to the topic of
optimization. The “key” to this whole process
is keywords. Understand that before your resume
is ever actually seen by a recruiter, an
algorithm is applied to it to determine
relevance based on the keywords provided by the
recruiter. Let me give you an example. Let’s
say I am a Project Manager who has his PMP
certification. As would be logical, I put my
name at the top of the resume along with the
title, something like this; John Smith, PMP.
This is pretty straightforward, right? Ok, so
now I am another PM, my name is Bill Gates, but
this time I am not yet certified, I don’t list
PMP after my name, but instead, I put it down
under education with a general statement that
says something like this; PMP – I am working
towards my PMP certification. I expect my PMP
certification to be complete within 12 months.
Now think of this in terms of SEO or relevance,
the algorithm applies a kind of scorecard based
on the keyword. Under this scenario, for the
keyword PMP John Smith = 1 and Bill Gates = 3.
It assumes Bill Gates is more important because
he has PMP on his resume 3 times and thus
presents his resume first.
Reality Check: don’t
just list your keywords, talk about your
keywords
In
closing, understand that before you ever get
considered for a position by a human being, you
are typically considered for that position by a
computer algorithm. You can have the most
experience in the world, the prettiest resume
and 17 different degrees, but unless you have
optimized your resume, those of us who use the
job boards, may never even realize it.
Additional tips & pet peeves:
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Most positions are
‘locked up’ in 24 hours, if I can’t reach
you, I will move on to the next candidate.
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List every
possible contact number
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Don’t rely solely
on email
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Confidential resumes
-
While I
understand the need, consider my first
point. With a confidential resume,
recruiters typically have to email you.
If you are not sitting at your computer,
you will probably loose the opportunity.
-
If you need to
submit a confidential resume, consider
whether there is a phone number that you
can give out in the body of the resume
so that we can reach you quickly (even
if you screen your calls).
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Email addresses
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More and more IT
Pros have their own web domains, if you
do, make sure you put at least a basic
web page up. The first thing I do when
I see an email address like
john@johndoe.com is to go to
www.johndoe.com,
at least 80% of the time there is not
even a placeholder site…Come on guys!!!
I thought you were pros.
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Resume Databases
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If you only
respond to jobs that are posted, you’re
barely in the game. MANY jobs never get
posted, for every MCSE position I post
there are probably about 20 that I don’t
(because I need them fast and don’t want
to wade through hundreds of resumes).
To
post your resume on our job board go to
www.procomservices.com.
Dan
Colby can be reached at
or
704-599-9840.
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