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The Art of Job Hunting - How to Ensure Your CV is Found on Job Boards
With so many online job boards available for the job hunter these days, where do you start and how do you know which ones are the most effective? Agencies and employers all seem to use different sites and if you want your CV to get picked up for the best jobs then you need to learn the art of job hunting on line.
Job hunting used to be a fairly straight forward game, you'd write a CV and then send off for jobs that you'd seen advertised in the local paper, you'd visit recruitment agencies and maybe the job centre as well But now both agencies and employers are using online job boards and it's not quite so simple as uploading your CV, filling in a few fields and then waiting for the phone to ring with fantastic job offers.
In fact, there are real do's and don'ts in job board job hunting but where do you start?
First of all, try a few google searches on the types of jobs and location that you're looking for see what job boards come up to ensure that it's a site that caters for your particular sector and location. Then upload your CV ensuring that you have your skills on your CV and the higher on your CV the better. If you've had a weird a wonderful job title specific to your previous employer, then change it to something more commonly known so that your CV is picked up by recruitment agencies who conduct hourly searches for new CVs matching their vacancies. You should also ensure that you fill in all the required fields so that the agencies or employers can contact you easily and then set up 'job alerts' so that the most suitable jobs are emailed to you directly and you can then decide whether to submit your CV. You should also do other searches on variations of your searches, for example, if you're a Secretary in Hertfordshire then also search for Administrator in Bishop's Stortford or Office Manager in Harlow, etc.
It's also a common fault to do a search and just apply for the first couple of jobs that come up, but it's better to keep going down the list as it's not always the case that the further down the list the older the jobs are.
It's also a good idea to visit the local recruitment agencies' websites as most of them have a CV searching facility and a 'Jobs by email' service specifically for their own jobs and these might not be linked to other sites so you might not get to see these jobs by any other means.
Also, when applying online, try and write a brief paragraph about why you feel the job is suitable to you and highlight your key areas of relevant experience so that the recruiter is quickly drawn to your application. It's easy to use the template letter that the job board will supply for you but my recommendation is that you personalise it for every job you apply for. This may take longer but it will make your applications more successful. On the other hand, don't write an essay otherwise the length of the email may put the recruiter or hiring manager off.
Finally, always follow up a job application with a phone call - it'll make you stand out from the crowd, but only if you've got the skills that the employer or agency are looking for so that you feel and therefore sound confident when making the call.
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