You have a critical choice to make during your job quest.
Should you use job boards like Monster / Hotjobs / CareerBuilder?
The answer is yes – ONLY if you are passionate about wasting your most precious resource, time.
Why job boards don’t work?
We at CareerTiger have always advised our clients to move away from job boards. Because times have changed, the business environment has changed and that’s why, the ways to look for a job have changed.
Jobvite 2009 Survey results
There’s an interesting survey from Jobvite that provides insights into this trend. To get your copy of the survey, go here (registration required).
The survey was conducted across a cross section of employer types and here are some highlights:
- 72% of employers plan to increase their use of social networks while a majority say they will invest less in more costly sources,including job boards, third-party recruitment and campus recruiting. This echoes the results of Jobvite’s 2008 Social Recruitment Survey, in which 68 percent of recruiters said they would increase their use of referrals and employees’ networks.
- 80% of companies use or are planning to use social networking to find and attract candidates this year.
- Among those using social network sites for recruiting, LinkedIn is now used by 95 percent of respondents
So don’t go about looking for jobs like it is 2003.
Go on, slay that monster and recharge your job search!
An interesting trend that is developing is the unemployment rate folks with high education is much lower than the unemployment rate for college dropouts or lower.
Let’s consider the unemployment rate for a minute.
Though 10% unemployment sounds pretty dire, what about 90% of the people that are still employed? Let me explain.
You are taking the morning train into work and 90% of the people are sitting down and 10% of the people are standing up. Statistically speaking, what are your chances of getting a seat? As the train keeps making stops and people keep getting off and getting into the train, you have a pretty high chance of getting a seat.
Apply that to our current job scenario. Even in our current employment environment, there’s still quite a bit of natural churn – attrition and hiring.
If you can play your cards even a little bit correctly, you’ll get a seat. And then you should hold onto that seat until you find a better one.
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f course job reports and employment reports are not a fun read these days. But there are ways you can use these to your advantage.
As many of you know I’m not a big fan of job web sites when it comes to searching for a job. However, here’s an area where job sites can add tremendous value to your job search strategy: job reports
Here’s an example of how you can read reports from Dice’s Local Market Reports that focus specifically on technology opportunities in metro areas:
- A quick glance will tell you (at the time of writing this blog entry) that Help desk, Java developers, SAP analysts still needed in Raleigh, Denver is posed for an uptick and LA is goin to be hiring in the healthcare and emerging technologies areas.
- Click on the specific metro areas that you are interested in to get an in depth report of the local market conditions and also the specific roles that companies are hiring for
- The reports also indicate which metros are ramping down for specific type of jobs – a great example of how you can use trends to refine your job strategy
Also, these reports are refereshed every month and provide you with a pulse on technology markets in major metro areas.
