When it’s time to find a job, these days most job seekers immediately head for job boards to see what’s being posted. The assumption is that job boards have made finding a job very easy. Just post your resume and apply for the jobs you find. All set. Quick and easy. Right?
Well, not exactly!
What is wrong with using job boards?
A job board-centric job search is what I call a “reactive” job search because job seekers are only reacting to the jobs they find posted, and, thus, missing most of the job market.
Sometimes a job board-centric job search works, but more often it doesn’t. The job seeker could end up with the perfect job. Or could miss that perfect job (because it wasn’t posted where the job seeker was looking or because it wasn’t posted at all), and end up taking more time to find a less-than-ideal job.
As long as job boards are only a part of the job search efforts, there is nothing “wrong” with using them. They can actually be helpful, if carefully chosen and used effectively, but only if they are just one of several tools the job seeker uses!
Why is a reactive, job board-focused job search not a good idea? For these 3 major reasons:
1. A reactive job board-based job search misses MOST of the jobs that are available!
- According to the most recent CareerXRoads survey of employer recruiting methods, employers filled only 13% of their jobs through job boards.
- According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, “a search that targets only the advertised openings misses more than half of the the available opportunities.”
2. A reactive job board-based job search targets the most competitive job marketplace.
With less than half (some estimate only 20%) of the total jobs available posted online, but with most job seekers focused on applying for those hobs, this is the toughest place to land a job.
3. A reactive job board-based job search is dependent on the “right” job being posted where the job seeker is looking.
So, the job seeker really is gambling that the jobs postings he or she finds include appropriate jobs from appropriate employers.
So, what’s a job seeker to do?
Modify the approach. Change how time is allocated, and spend less time on the job boards.
Job seekers should post their resumes in the major job boards – HotJobs, Monster, and CareerBuilder, and scan whatever niche job boards are appropriate. Posted resumes should be “re-saved” once or twice a month so that they look “fresh” to potential employers.
Then, get off the job boards!
Bottom Line
Based on my research, observations, and interviews, my strong suspicion is that a job board-centric job search takes longer than any other method. So, heat up the job search by spending 20% or less of job search efforts trolling for job postings on job boards.
________________________
Each link opens a new page when clicked:
- Turn Off The Computer, Tune Into What’s Happening, & Heat Up the Job Search, @chandlee
- Heating up the Job Search-How to Stay Motivated During the Summer, @erinkennedycprw
- Light the Fire Under Your Feet, @careersherpa
- Cool Job Seekers Heat Up Their Search in the Summer, @barbarasafani
- Some assembly required, @DawnBugni
- Summertime, Sluggish Economy Provide Strong Motivation for an Updated Resume, @KatCareerGal
- 9 Ways to Heat Up Your Job Search This Summer, @heatherhuhman
- Getting Out From Under Chronic, @WorkWithIllness
- Upping Your Job Search Flame; Be ‘Needed, Not Needy,‘ @ValueIntoWords
- Is Your Career Trapped in the Matrix? @WalterAkana
- Put some sizzle in your job hunt – how to find a job now, @keppie_careers
- Summertime – and the Job Search Ain’t Easy, @KCCareerCoach
- Heating up your job search. 5 ways to dismiss those winter blues, @GayleHoward
- Hot Tips for a Summer Job Search, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes
- Heating Up Your Job Searching Skills: Networking 101 and 102, @GLHoffman
- Treasure Hunt—Yo-ho-ho! Heat Up Your Job Search, @resumeservice
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Thanks for drawing job seekers’ attention to LINKUP.com. Nearly 500,000 jobs and growing every day, LINKUP has jobs no one else because they ONLY come from company websites.
EVERYONE knows company websites are THE place to look. But it is NOT the only place, of course.
Thanks Susan.
Susan:
Thanks for helping job seekers understand how to manage their time more effectively with your post!
You’ve presented great statistics/data (as always!) and provided alternative ways of conducting a pro-active search.
Super resource! Your knowledge reigns supreme!
[...] Heat Up Your Job Search: Avoid Job Boards, @JobHuntOrg [...]
Susan,
This post is so meaningful and content-rich, I am bookmarking it for my clients!
Heeding your drumbeat that job board-centric searches often will fall short of a job seeker’s needs and expectations is necessary. Your post provides many pragmatic and do-able methods to refine one’s search, research target companies and contacts (employees, hiring decision-makers, influencers, etc.) within those companies, build relationships … and more.
Another great point: MANY smaller and mid-size companies do NOT advertise on job boards; and MANY of the current opportunities for jobs are, in fact, created by those size companies. Recently, a client of mine submitted his highly targeted and compelling resume message to a ‘green’ company he noticed was expanding in the area (NO advertisements for openings were published). Soon, he not only got an interview, but landed a job in sales management. Not only was this new job he landed in a company that was not advertising openings, but it was within an industry in which my client had never worked.
It works to think outside of the job-board box! And it’s imperative to take the action steps that you have described to create a tractionable job search!
Excellent post, Susan!
Thank you!
Jacqui
[...] those winter blues, @GayleHoward Hot Tips for a Summer Job Search, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes Heat Up Your Job Search: Avoid Job Boards, @JobHuntOrg Heating Up Your Job Searching Skills: Networking 101 and 102, @GLHoffman Treasure [...]
Susan,
I agree with many of the other posts. This is an excellent article and my colleauges and I at the WorkSource centers in King County, WA are using it with our customers.
Thank you and all at job-hunt.org for your quality and timely information. You are a great resource!
Maureen
Completely agree. We should learn to search through many different channels, not just choosing online job searching, which is the easiest of course. I relate this to when a Professor tells you that you need 15 sources in your bibliography and only 5 can be from job boards. So if your job search had a bibliography you’d need to use other sources…
To add to “To take care of the looking-in-the-wrong-place issue, search the “job aggregator” Websites, like Indeed, SimplyHired, and JustJobs which pull job postings from job boards as well as employers and associations.” I’d like to share another aggregator site, http://jobs.trovit.com
Thanks!
About LinkUp: “LinkUp is the best job search engine on the web today.”
haha, very amusing.
Indeed & SimplyHired destroy LinkUp. Sorry but it’s true. They do what LinkUp can, plus a whole lot more.
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