Technology continues to gain more importance in our lives, both personally and professionally. It’s of particular importance to job seekers, where it has basically changed the entire process in just a couple of decades. Technology now rules the recruiting process from beginning to end, and it’s imperative that job seekers understand how that technology impacts their search and how they can use it to their advantage. Here are three ways technology-influenced recruiting tactics have impacted your job search and what they mean for you.
1. Online Job Boards
The job search has largely moved online. While it was once great job advice to pound the pavement and visit places where you wanted to work, many of them now just direct candidates to apply online. Businesses use all kinds of online job boards to find the people they are looking for. They’ll post ads on Craigslist if they’re looking for younger employees or to specialty job boards if they want people with skills in a certain field. They’ll go to remote-only job boards if they want a remote worker. Frequent the boards best suited to what you are looking for. While you shouldn’t only use job boards for a job search, they play an important role in connecting you with companies that have positions open or might have something more to your liking in the near future. You should leverage plenty of other media to find the right job for you, especially if you plan on taking employment in different states, if you’re looking for a sales job in Chicago, you might need to look for vacancies before heading out.
2. Applicant Tracking Systems
Applicant tracking systems are the bane of many job hunters’ existence, but they’re here to stay and can even work to your advantage if you know how to get noticed by them. A candidate applicant tracking system works like this – it makes it easier for companies to keep track of all applicants who apply for a job by storing their information and scanning resumes and cover letters for key words. Applicant tracking systems save employers time by weeding out resumes that appear to be from unqualified applicants. While it may seem unfair, positions can get thousands of applicants and companies need some way of managing that. In a job hunt today, you have to be able to make a list of key words and phrases from each job ad and integrate them into your resume and cover letter. It will make it much easier to get noticed by a human resource information system and get your resume in front of a live human.
3. Social Media
Your social media accounts can have a big impact on your job search, and sites like LinkedIn in particular have revolutionized how businesses recruit employees. Employers can now find you and all of your professional work history with a simple search on LinkedIn, or get a sense for who you are by checking out your Facebook. If you reply to a job ad on LinkedIn, all of your resume information is already there for potential employers to examine. Facebook can be both a benefit and a major trap if job seekers don’t realize what potential employers can see on their accounts. You can use the fact that employers check out your Facebook profile by using it to showcase what a good fit for the job you are. Preliminary interviews are often done over LinkedIn instant messaging rather than by phone, and even regular interviews can be conducted remotely thanks to software like Skype. If employers are impressed enough you will move on to the next stage.
Technology may have completely changed the recruitment and job search process, but job seekers have a lot to gain from these changes too. You can peruse the right job boards to discover positions at companies you didn’t know existed, use keywords to get to the top of applicant tracking system lists, and use social media to make you more visible and highlight what makes you such a qualified candidate. Take the time to learn about the modern job search process and use the technology that powers it to your advantage, and you should land the job of your dreams in no time.
