Alright, so I’m actually working on a pretty long (translation = boring to anyone but me and people behind the voices in my head) piece about the disconnect between recruiters and candidates, but meantime, stumbled upon Path101, a pretty neat tool for job seekers. I’m still diving in, but worth a look…
The ever interesting Yann Gourvennec has a brilliant post up about managing your online reputation, a must read for anyone who is, well, anyone in this brave new world. Get yourself out there.
David Perry’s great. He has a new book out – Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters – that you should buy, now. Worth the investment. Here’s a video interview he and his co-author, Kevin Donlin, just did with the Wall Street Journal.
Quick tip from behind the Green Curtain: I’m looking for a software engineer with experience working with core Java, and (hopefully) some semantic Java experience. Just did two searches that I think you, as a job seeker, should be aware of:
Sometimes, what seems clear to some (due to their occupation) is pretty damned opaque to others. I was just looking at a profile on LinkedIn – background seemed at a high level to be a fit for a job I’m trying to fill (Java Engineer). So, I got excited.
Then I saw that he was interested in hearing about a new job. I got even more excited.
Then, I decided to reach out to him. And that’s when I got less excited. Considerably less excited.
See, he’d made that part impossible. He hadn’t done the standard workaround, for starters. LinkedIn likes to keep e-mail addresses hidden, so they can charge you for access to the person. If you want to be reached, add your e-mail next to your name, or title, whatever. Just get it up there. If you’re not so inclined to *ahem* play with the rules (I’m the “apologize later” type), at least provide some level of information. This guy had blocked out the name of every company he’d ever worked for, provided clearly generic titles, etc. I’m willing to dig around if I’m interested in somebody, and find a way to contact them, but there’s a limit. And, no, I’m not paying for LinkedIn’s premium service (and, I’d say the majority of my recruiting bretheren are the same), when I can typically get the info for free. If you’re the exception to that, then expect to remain hidden.
Beyond that, and back to my title, in general you want to be very visible. I don’t mean show up (with a briefcase full of crackers – a la Kramer), start working, and expect to get paid. Although, that’s taking the “apologize later” philosophy to potentially _awesome_ levels. But: try and contribute to Q&A sessions on websites that relate to what you do (recruiters read those religiously, looking for people who seem actively engaged in their professsions, and are – always important – reachable); check out Meetup, and find a group that relates to what you do – get to that MeetUp, and mingle; post your resume online, at Scribd – it’s ridiculously easy, and makes your resume searchable (recruiters do keyword searches on Google all the time: putting “inurl:resume” plus some skill set words in gets great people); use JibberJobber to manage your search; and…
…wait, I’m digressing into how cool Web 2.0 can be when it comes to helping get a better job, and that’s it’s own post. Just got excited again.
