Just when job candidates think they have exhausted all the ways to get a job, here comes a new job site. One that requires “pay and bid” for an interview! Times get tough and innovation blooms. But paying a company for an interview? Really.
Haven’t job candidates had enough? The ultimate is websites where the only form of contact is through an email. No way to trace a phone number and speak with a human yet sites offers to store and share candidates’ resumes. This makes PeopleHirePeople suspicious as to why the websites want resumes and where actually will the resumes end up? Perhaps to pitch new products or services nothing related to jobs.
No doubt innovation for the fast bucks is accelerating new job sites. PeopleHirePeople discovered another site charging $5 fee to view a single job. Some candidates spend $30 plus per month for resume exposure and access to an exclusive database for job postings. Other fee paid sites will blast or fax your resume to hundreds or thousands of recruiters.
Job candidates discover time and expenses of job search have gotten out of hand, so do employers and recruiters. In a recent Wall Street Journal an article was titled, “Recruiters Use Search Engines to Lure Job Hunters Cash-Strapped Companies Save with Search Ads, Scale Back on Rival Media Like Job Boards and Newspapers”.
Employers like job candidates seek new Internet tools for hiring. In order to save job boards fees which can be $10K for one user access to resume databases and $500 per job posting, employers turn to the “free” social networking sites.
The digital electronic job search turns candidates into indentured servants of the computer. No rest for the weary. Computer busy work consists of job boards, on line applications, profile creation for social networks, twittering, Yahoo groups and on and on. Candidates spend more hours per day working job related web sites than making personal one-on-one connections.
Does all this digital electronic searching work? Not according to the statistics. Less than 5% of job candidates actually reap a job from job boards. Only 15% of jobs are advertised. Finally, 90% of managers actually hire through some form of their own connections. An unofficial poll by PeopleHirePeople found that normally after 90 days job candidates realize that their electronic searches do not pay off.
What actually works? Statistics show that 60-85% of employment opportunities occur when humans actually connect. Therefore the obvious goal for job candidates becomes human contacts rather than digital electronic connections.
How do job candidates create new contacts quickly? PeopleHirePeople suggests the power of the phone. Most job candidates’ first choice of communication is emails. Assumptions that emails will pass through security, be opened, read and message retained should not be made by senders. Email inboxes overflow and the receiver often deletes unfamiliar senders before opening and reading. Select individuals who are very knowledgeable within the industry of choice to personally call.
For example, who could a job candidate contact who was moving to Dallas with no industry contacts in that location and possessed experience in event planning? PeopleHirePeople suggested finding the society reporter in a major Dallas newspaper. Then call that reporter. This reporter would cover all the latest events and have knowledge of the town’s best event planners, caterers etc. In one phone call the job candidate can learn the major event players in Dallas then approach those companies about employment. The job candidate should also ask the reporter for a contact within each company. Lastly the job candidate should ask permission to use the reporter’s name when placing calls to the recommended contacts. It is always a door opener to use a referral’s name when making new connections.
Phone calls to targeted professionals who have a wealth of industry information and connections are the best use of time for job candidates. This extremely focused approach brings many more referrals in a short period of time than working job sites. Asking for assistance through a phone call is effective because the receiver of the request is more likely to have time for a quick conversation than a face to face meeting. A phone call is less likely to be ignored than an email. In the end, electronic connections don’t hire, people do!
Guest Expert:
Kathleen Conners specializes in people connections for job search. She developed PeopleHirePeople “where to hunt”, “who to contact” & “what to ask” strategies. Kathleen is a full time recruiter and a guest lecturer to MBA programs at major universities. Her book, The Thrill of the Hunt: Get Real in Your Job Search can be directly purchased from www.authorhouse.com. Additional information and articles: http://www.peoplehirepeople.com/ and blog: http://www.peoplehirepeople.com/PHPBlog/
Guest Expert
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