by Ron Bates

Created on: March 22, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

Your Internet presence is critical, if you're in a position to be looking for a job (regardless of being currently employed or not). That said, if you are actually seeking alternative employment, are you actually "looking" or are you sitting around waiting for the phone to ring hoping some recruiter or hiring authority who Googled you is on the other end?

Looking for a job, especially around the holidays can be one of the most frustrating activities known to man. The only way to combat that frustration is to take the bull by the horns and minimize your anxiety with the knowledge that you are doing every possible thing you can to expose yourself to opportunity. Solely investing in your Internet presence, sitting around and circling Help Wanted Ads in the newspaper, or throwing your resume up on Monster isn't going to cut it.

Be proactive, drive the bus, and get aggressive. How aggressive? It depends on your ability to make your next mortgage payment.

Know this: Job search is the mirror image of recruiting.

To maximize your exposure, you need to mirror everything recruiters and hiring authorities do to gain exposure to their openings.

So what does this mean? Let's put it in context with the recruiting process.

The basic recruiting process can be described as follows:

* Write the job spec (i.e., market, company, job profile, experience/skill requirements)

Your CV/Resume is the mirror image to the job spec, but with one difference: a poorly written job spec can still attract great candidates. You're CV/resume better be the best it can possibly be.

* Defined the Search Universe (i.e., set of industries, markets, and ultimately companies that would precipitate a peer level candidate with experiences and skills in alignment with the job spec)

The mirror equivalent to this would be the Employer Universe of industries, markets, and ultimately companies your experience aligns with.

* Identify the candidates in the Search Universe (this is where most recruiters and hiring authorities stop the candidate targeting).

Your mirror equivalent would be identifying the hiring authorities, HR contacts, and recruiters that would at some point have needs for someone with a CV/resume like yours within your Employer Universe.

* Really good recruiters also identify a Tangential Search Universe (i.e., what set of industries, markets, and ultimately companies might peer level candidates with relevant work experience acquired in the target Search Universe now be working). Often candidates with relevant

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>