Getting the most from Job Boards like Monster.com – 3 tips.

If you are still using job boards, great, they are still one of the most common sources companies use to hire employees but they are very competitive and even if you are a good candidate for a position you still may be overlooked by employers. 

So what is the solution?  Well even though this is an article about job boards and I think they should be used as a part of an overall job search strategy I want to stress that they should not be the only source you use to find a job.  In fact, according to some sources the hidden/unadvertised job market accounts for 70 to 80 percent of jobs out there.  With that said, here are three concrete tips to get the most out job boards:

1.  It is great to use general job boards like Monster.com or job search aggregators like Indeed.com but be sure to use job boards that are specific to your function/industry.   Although job search aggregators do a good job of searching most job boards you will might be surprised at the opportunities that turn up by searching a function/industry specific job board.  In addition, go to Linkup.com to search for jobs; it only searches company websites for job postings and they claim that many of their postings are unadvertised. 

2.  Make sure your title is clear and your profile and first few bullets stand out.  As is often said you only have 30 seconds to 1 minute of a hiring managers time so make sure the first half of your resume talks about the things they want.  Check out my article “Tips for a Successful Job Search” for an example of an introductory profile. 

3.  Last but not least make sure you include as many key words as possible in your resume.  Recruiters, hiring managers or HR professionals do a quick search for terms and if you don’t have what they are searching for you will be out of luck.  Check out my article “Think BeforeYou Send” for a breakdown on how to uncover relevant keywords. 

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Now Go Get Em'
recruiterMikeC

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