New York Times Article: "Job Hunting Is, and Isn’t, What It Used to Be"

The article referenced in the title to this post appeared in the New York Times on 26 September 2008.

It made a number of very good points with which I happen to agree, including:

• “The key for most people to realize is that you can’t conduct your search from your computer. You have to get in front of prospective bosses to get an offer.”


• The trouble with many job sites, especially the bigger ones such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder, Yahoo-HotJobs, etc., is that they have become an indiscriminate morass.


• When you apply for a job through a job board, your competition may number in the 100's or even the 1000's - all things being equal, the odds are not good!


• "Many job hunters are abandoning the job sites, or using them much less frequently, in favor of what are called social networking sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook."


• An increasing number of employers and recruiters are looking for candidates on networking sites, such as LinkedIn.


• Get anything that looks bad off your social networking pages (and this applies to more purely social sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, as well as to sites more angled to professional networking, such as LinkedIn). A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management showed that "negative information on an applicant’s profile, like 'personal views or values contradictory to the hiring organization or excessive alcohol abuse,' have a greater impact on hiring decisions than positive information.


• Incorporate key words and phrases into the text of your accomplishment-driven resume; look at the job description for ideas.


• When push comes to shove in the job search, the name of the game is dressing up nicely, going out and meeting people.