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Here are just a few of HireMaker's favorite tips for the job search. Some are common, but we've included a few nuggets that most people don't know.
Most important: Put your resume on ALL the major job boards (HotJobs, Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed) as well as the ones that are prominent locally. Why? Because only a relatively small number of companies (the very largest, as well as staffing firms) belong to ALL of them. Most companies belong to just one of them, so if you thing "monster alone" is enough, it's not.
Once you've taken the time to create a great resume (preferably with our help), it takes just a little more time to register and post to all the job boards. Even if you've historically had better luck with just one and not the other, it doesn't matter. You'll get more calls if you belong to all of them.
Update your resume weekly - I suggest Sunday nights. Why? So that your resume always is presented as "recently updated" to recruiters looking through the job board for resumes. When they see a recently updated resume, they know you're actively engaged in the job search. (Which would you click on if you were a recruiter: A resume updated last week, or one updated 3 months ago?).
How: I suggest going into the resume itself, and changing something, and saving. Even if it's just adding an extra space at the end of a line, the computer will consider it changed. Do it weekly, or maybe even twice a week.
Join the job board that has billboards all over your town. Why? Well, even though the major global job boards have the lions share of the market, the job boards that advertise heavily locally to you often have a good share of your local market. Just as I mentioned above, take the time to join a job board or two from your local hometown.
Don't overlook CraigsList, but you also have to be a little more cautious. Why? CraigsList opens the door to many much smaller companies, who won't necessarily spend the approximately $450 every time they need to post an ad. So take a look at the job postings on CraigsList.
Post a special "extra-anonymized" resume on CraigsList. And don't respond to the "get rich quick" schemes you'll get as a result of the posting either. As mentioned above, CraigsList opens the door to a group of employers who aren't necessarily on the major job boards. At the same time, the downside is that CraigsList is completely open to anyone with a computer, so your resume won't be only seen by paying corporate members, it will be seen by anyone, including scammers, pyramid schemers, and anyone else who chooses to look.
How to post: Take a version of your resume, and TOTALLY DELETE your Name, Address, and Email. With CraigsList, when you post your resume, CraigsList automatically sends emails of people who reply to the resume straight to you. Instead of your name and address, I suggest the following title section: "Please contact me via CraigsList, and I will reply promptly".
Clusty. www.clusty.com is a rival to Google, with a unique way of "clustering" results. They have a job-search section of their website that also winds up showing some job postings that aren't always on the job boards. Specifically, they'll show a good amount of company job postings that are posted to the company's web site, but not necessarily to the job boards.
Like this advice? We though you wood. Just remember, we're just as good with resumes!