Stop Looking for Executive Jobs on Online Job Boards
Stop Looking for Executive Jobs on Online Job Boards
If you’re looking for your next executive job on online job boards such as Monster and Indeed, you’ve got a lot of searching, reading, filtering, and applying to do. Every day, you have to log in, search, read, filter, and apply … and then do it all again the next day. Have you done this? Have you felt the frustration that comes with doing all of this for perhaps hours per day with few positive results?
The reason you’re feeling like you’re getting small bang for your buck is that online job boards, particularly for executives, are not effective for job search strategy–in isolation. Of course, you might feel like you’re doing a lot–all that search/read/filter/apply can take hours of your day. But the return you can expect from doing all of this will continue to be slender.
How You Should Use Online Job Boards for Your Executive Job Search
First, stop applying (if you are) to hundreds, or even dozens of jobs. Of course, this will require a significant shift in your thinking if this has been your sole strategy to date. Instead, use the big job boards and the specialty job boards to get a sense of what hiring executives typically want candidates to address when they apply for positions. Think about the skills, knowledge, and abilities that these types of positions require, and start mapping your resume strategy to them.
Second, set up job search alerts on each job board and on Google Alerts. Alerts send you daily updates of positions that match the criteria you specify directly to your email. Now all you need to do is check your email one time per day to see whether any of the positions mentioned are good prospects for your executive job search. You’ll save hours of time that you can now use more strategically.
What to Do Instead of Scouring the Job Search Boards
You might feel like you’re “not doing anything” if you give up your daily scouring of the online job boards. It’s going to feel very different from your prior practice, but you’ll start to see the benefits of your efficiency. Use the time you’ve opened up to start to build the relationships that will get you into target companies before positions are even posted. For example, if you know that Smith, Inc. is a company of interest, and you believe you’d make a great General Manager there, then start researching the company. Read its web site. Google its press releases. Learn about its products or services. Then, look on LinkedIn to see whether you know anyone who works there, or whether you have a second-degree connection who works there. Now take that connection to the next level and see about getting the right introduction for an informational interview. You’ll be surprised at how successful your in-person, humanized executive job search strategy can be.
Do you need some guidance on how to get the right informational interviews? Five Strengths can help.
Image courtesy of Stock.Xchng.com / sachyn.
