Networking tips from a recruiter

Networking and searching

Long gone are the days of searching the classifieds for a job and calling up to schedule and interview. So get with the times. Use the internet so recruiters can discover you.

• Create a LinkedIn page. Complete your profile. Add skills and bullet points under your jobs so you show up in searches. Request recommendations from people you worked with previously. Pimp out your page and connect with your past colleagues. You can send out a message or update your status that you’re seeking new opportunities if you aren’t currently employed. If you are employed and your employer doesn’t know you’re looking, reach out only to close friends and ask them to let you know if they hear of anything that could be a good fit for you.
• Post your resume on any resume boards that target the industry you work in. The Ladders, Dice, Indeed, local boards. Include your contact information on your resume. Some sites charge employers for every contact they make, so make your contact information visible to the recruiters because many won’t pay for it. If you don’t want phone calls, just list an email address. If you don’t want your email folder filled with job stuff, create a new email address just for your job search. Make it basic – your name, perhaps. Certainly don’t use that crude email address you still have from high school or college.
• Find out which local staffing agencies place people in positions like you’re seeking and give them a call. The process can be a bit tedious, but can also really pay off for you. Staffing agencies don’t only fill temporary jobs – many times they fill positions for companies that don’t have an HR department or have had trouble finding someone themselves. A good Account Manager at a staffing agency will look for a good fit for you and call you only on opportunities you’ve expressed an interest in.
• Search the job boards and apply for the positions that interest you. Include Indeed and LinkedIn in your job board searches. If there are industry specific job boards in your field, search those. Don’t waste your time applying to jobs you would never accept if offered to you. If you don’t understand enough about the job from the posting, attempt to reach the recruiter for clarification. Don’t waste a lot of their time or be too obnoxious though – we do remember that!
• Tailor your resume to the job posting you’re interested in if need be. If the job posting lists something you’ve done in a completely different way than you have it listed, make your resume match their language so your resume is found in a key word search. If they’re asking for managers with experience managing teams of 20+ but your resume doesn’t list that you’ve managed 50 people at once, add that in.
• If you aren’t getting any results, it’s time to rethink what you’re doing, rather than continuing the same painful cycle endlessly. Start back at the beginning. It all starts with your resume.