Alison Doyle

Social Recruiting Steps Up a Notch

I read an interesting article the other day about social recruiting and how it's not quite here yet.  That may be the case, but it's definitely pretty close.  There might not be a one size fits all site where you can capture everything you need to know about a candidate from a personal connection, as the writer suggested there should be, but maybe there doesn't need to be. There's already plenty of opportunities for employers to personally connect with candidates.

Job site CareerBuilder has a Talent Network which includes social media, personalized job recommendations, employee referrals, and a mobile-friendly interface. Employers can invite candidates to join their Talent Network from Facebook.  CareerBuilder's new Facebook referral app, Work@, makes it easy for workers to identify which Facebook friends are a match for open positions within their company and instantly share those opportunities.

Tech job site Dice has a social recruiting platform where job seekers can connect directly with recruiters.  Candidates are able to create profiles, which can include links to their social networking profiles, including LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs. To take it a step further, employers and job seekers can directly connect on Dice via a message center, real time chat, an instant message tool, and email. 

LinkedIn announced two new products this month.  The Referral Engine will enable companies to generate more high-quality applicants by tapping the professionals in their employees' LinkedIn networks. Jobs for You allows companies to pick their audience based on LinkedIn profile data -- including function, seniority, industry, and more-- and distribute their jobs exclusively to individuals with professional backgrounds that match their hiring needs.

Look at LinkedIn company pages and you'll see who you know at the company and who your connections know.

Read the Facebook Marketplace Notifications email you get and you'll see which of your friends have posted jobs. You'll also be notified if your friends' friends post jobs.

LinkUp's Facebook application, Current Jobs at Our Company, automatically feed jobs daily from a company website to a Facebook fan page.  Job seekers can 'share' jobs with friends by posting to their personal Facebook profile wall or by email.

Use job search engine, SimplyHired.com and click on "Who Do I Know" to see your Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections at the companies in the search results.

There may not be one way to get at everything employers want to know about an applicant or job seekers want to know about a company.  But, again, maybe there shouldn't be. The lines are already blurred between personal and professional and I don't see anything the matter with keeping them that way, as best we can - and keeping your Facebook profile, along with your likes and your interests and your friends, as private as you want them to be.

Connect With Alison:  Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn 

 

Real-Time Jobs iPhone App

TwitterJobSearch, the Twitter job search engine, has just released a new iPhone app - Real-Time Jobs.  TwitterJobSearch's QuickPitch tech platform allows job seekers to find and apply for these jobs with a single tap on their iPhone.

In addition to providing real-time mobile job searching, the app marks the introduction of the company's QuickPitch technology. Job seekers can attach an online resume or CV, social media profile, and/or a video CV to job offers that have been posted to Twitter with a single click. 

"To develop a complete mobile solution, we had to move the entire recruitment process to the cloud," says Bill Fischer, co-founder of TwitterJobSearch. "By bringing together our real-time search capabilities with our QuickPitch platform, we're aiming to re-invent a job search process that simply requires too much effort."

More: Real-Time Jobs App | iPhone Job Search Apps

The White House Visits LinkedIn

Anyone who knows me, or reads my advice, knows that I think that everyone should be using LinkedIn. I've written quite a bit about how to use LinkedIn to job search and I firmly believe that LinkedIn is the site for professional networking and that job seekers, those starting or growing their career, and those in transition should be using LinkedIn for job hunting and networking.

That's why I was thrilled to see that the White House, along with 48 other million LinkedIn members, is using LinkedIn. Nancy Ann De Parle, Director, White House Office of Health Reform, is asking (aren't LinkedIn Questions great?) "The White House wants to know: What is the biggest health care problem in your state?"

Not only does it reinforce the value of LinkedIn, but, from my perspective, health care reform is critical and it's good to see the White House soliciting feedback.

Related: LinkedIn  | Join About.com Job Search/Careers LinkedIn Group

ResumeAnalysis Resume Reviews

If you have a little money to spend and would like a quick review of your resume, you might want to give ResumeAnalysis a try.  ResumeAnalysis isn't a resume writing service. Rather, it matches you up with a pre-screened resume reviewer.  You can see before, edited, and final versions of resumes here:

• Before Resume
• Edited Version
• Final Version

ResumeAnalysis has no pretensions of being a resume writing service, which is good. It simply offers a review of your resume. The price is right - use the promo code AUGUST this month and you'll save $5 off the $19 of a resume review.  Code should be entered in the text field labeled "Promotional Code" under "Account Details" tab.

If you're not happy with the review, there's a money back guarantee.

More: ResumeAnalysis | ResumeAnalysis on Twitter

Job Searching Gets Personal

Social recruiting site Koda is an interesting mix of professional and personal (Linkedin and Facebook).  "KODA is more professional than Facebook but more personal than LinkedIn, letting both sides of the hiring equation get to know each other," said Jeff Berger, the company's co-founder and CEO.

For job seekers, it's way to present a more personal image to employers and to be able to connect directly with companies that are hiring.

For companies it's a way to get, as Koda calls it, "A Deeper Look" at candidates (that's the section of your profile that includes interests, specialities and personal strengths).

Will it catch on?  I think it could. Whenever you can match companies directly with candidates (RealMatch and OneWire Finance are examples of sites that do it well) you've got potential. And Koda has hundreds of companies on board already.

Job seekers are getting tired of posting applying for jobs and having their resume disappear into what seems like a black hole in the middle of the internet.  Companies are getting tired of receiving hundreds of resumes for every job opening and having to weed through them to find qualified candidates.

For both sides of the job search equation, streamlining the process and matching candidates with companies is a step forward.

Web: Koda.us -  RealMatch - OneWire Finance 
Twitter: KODAus - RealMatch - OneWirefinance

Jobs for Change

Interested in making a difference in the world?  Jobs for Change is full of career advice for students, grads, professionals, switching sectors, and just about anyone else who is interested in a career where they can do good.

In addition to the terrific advice, you'll find lots of job and internship listings. You can search by keyword and location, or browse the listings.

If you have a question, ask away and one of the Career Guides will respond.   

Twitter:  JobsforChange  | Web: Jobs for Change | Facebook: Jobs for Change

Tips for Successful Resume Writing

Do you need to create a resume?  Before you get started, take a look at these resume resources include tips for resume writing, online resume builders, resume templates, resume examples, and video resumes.

Keep in mind that your resume should be targeted for the jobs you are applying for.  One size doesn't fit all when it comes to your resume.  It's not like the old days when you could have a generic resume you used for every job you applied for.

Now that's there so much competition (hundreds and sometimes even thousands of resumes submitted for every open position), you need to carefully customize your resume for every job opening you apply for, so it works effectively with each company's talent management system.

Samples: Resume | Cover Letter

Internet Your Way to a New Job (2nd Edition)

I'm thrilled to announce that the second edition of Internet Your Way to a New Job: How to Really Find a Job Online is now available.

It will provide you with everything you need to know and step you through the process of online job searching, professional branding, social and professional networking, and career building with uncomplicated advice, tips, and techniques on how to effectively find a new job and grow your career.

The new edition includes all the latest job search sites, tools, trends, including Twitter, VisualCV, professional branding, online networking, video, and podcasts, along with the top sites for job seekers and career changers.

I appreciate all the suggestions and advice provided by job seekers and career professionals who were kind enough to share their expertise and their job search stories with me.  Thanks so much to you all.

Order Your Paperback or eBook copy:

• Internet Your Way to a New Job (save 15% on book and 20% on eBook)

Bad New Job Sites

I was talking to a career professional this morning about how almost everyone who has ever job searched thinks that gives them credentials as an expert.  Credentials enough, so they believe, to capitalize on the difficult job market and make a buck, often at the expense of job seekers. 

Giving advice and offering products and services is fine - if you are offering something that's of value to job seekers and you aren't trying to take advantage of them.  But, there are so many people attempting to give advice and jumping on the jobs bandwagon that it's a little scary.  In many cases, they aren't just not giving good advice - they are giving bad advice that won't help anyone find a job.

Bad Job Sites

On a related note, a few minutes after my conversation on what's happening on the career advice front, I received a email pitch for two new job sites.  The search results were the same on both of them. Regardless of your search criteria, you only got to some job listings (from a job search engine - nothing unique) after you scrolled through a full screen of ads.  Nasty is pretty much how I'd describe it.

How's that for a terrific user experience?  And, I wonder, why on earth would I want to recommend a site that, first of all, doesn't get you at least some job listings right off the bat, and secondly, doesn't have any job listings of its own?

The sad part is that this is only one example.  My In Box is full, every single day, for pitches for the latest, greatest, best site for job seekers. Unfortunately, most of them aren't. And, unfortunately for me, I have to take at least a quick look to make sure I don't miss one of those what seems like needles in a haystack that really are good resources.

New Job Tools: Path 101, Telonu, MeetingWave, Siftin

Joyce Lain Kennedy's article News of New Job Tools has a good overview of some of the job/career sites that are new and noteworthy - Path 101, TwitterJobSearch.com, and Telonu.com.

I've mentioned this before, but it's getting hard to keep track of what's new - there are so many new sites in the career space. 

Then, of course, there's the question of whether the site is actually noteworthy.  I looked at one this morning, for example, that was basically a shell - no job listings or anything other than a web site waiting to happen. Not noteworthy, at least not yet.

There are others that I am more curious about.  If anyone is using MeetingWave, a new person to person offline networking site,  I'm curious to hear how it's working for you. 

Siftin.com is a super job search engine that searches job sites and job search engines including Craigslist.org, Kijiji.com, Careerbuilder.com, Dice.com, Indeed.com, Jobster.com, Ladders.com, Monster.com, SimplyHired.com, Yahoo Hotjobs, and Myspace.com Classifieds.  It also translates the results into a variety of languages including Chinese, Dutch, French, Portugese, Spanish, and Russian.  Any luck finding job listings? Let me know what you think.