Simply Hired Webinar Review

This article is written as a review of a webinar I attended on November 10, 2010.  The topic was Social Media Recruiting; The Game Changer sponsored by Simply Hired and hosted by Matt Baum. 

As a job seeker, it was quite interesting to see how recruiters are using social media to attract talent.  I was invited to participate in this event by Jodi Addison with onTargetjobs.

Simply Hired is job aggregator which collects job postings from all over the internet and consolidates them in one place.  The advantage of these kinds of sites is that it can greatly reduce the amount of effort required to look for a job.  All you need are a few key words and a geographical preference.  The disadvantage of these kind of sites is that sometimes the positions become stale and when click-through is performed, the position posting has already been taken down.

My single biggest take-away from this webinar was the fact that when looking through Simply Hired job posts, the user is immediately reminded of his/her 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree contacts on LinkedIn who work for or know someone who works for the hiring company.  Of course this 'mashup' needs to be established to allow LinkedIn and Simply Hired to work together.

Other take-aways include Simply Hired's connection with other large media players in the internet space such as WSJ Tech Blog, CNNMoney, Fortune, Business Week, Washington Post and others.  The primary function was that each of these site provides 'real estate' which Simply Hired uses to advertise relevant positions for the readership of these sites.

Controlling on-line brand is a paramount concern of mine as my name and reputation are searchable.  On-line brand is also a concern of recruiters and firms providing a service for job seekers.  Building this brand is important for active and 'passive' job seekers.  The next time a prospective employee is looking for work while either gainfully employed or seeking full time employment, Simply Hired wants to be the brand that is remembered.

For a link to the webinar you can Download a copy of the presentation now!

Networking Important to Job Search

Attended a recruiter panel event at Right Management on 11/9/10.  Included on the panel were onTargetjobs represented by Jodi Addison, tw telecom, inc. with Tammy Fornelius and Tierney Talent Ventures, LLC represented by Kay Tierney, president and founder.  Many timely insights were gained from this first-hand panel roudtable.

Five steps to follow for narrowing job search using Twitter

A friend of mine pointed out to me that there are thousands of microblog job post tweets everyday on Twitter.  A great source for position openings, yes.  An easy task to find what you are looking for without spending precious time, no.  So how can one harness the power of the internet to simply send a composite summary -- short list -- to an email address once per day?  The steps are listed below.  Hint: it involves Twitter's new location feature.  Again, remember that these tips are intended to shorten the laborious task of on-line job searching so that you can do what really makes sense; networking.

1.  Create a Google alert with hash tags.  For example use hash tag: #jobs and #(your city)

2.  Select 'Updates' in the drop down under Type:

3. Choose 'once a day' in the drop down for How often:

4. Allow alerts to be forwarded to your email

5. Preview the results of your search terms in the box on the right

Below is a screen shot of the Google alerts window for reference.

5 steps to simplify on-line job searches with Indeed.com

How would you like to significantly reduce the amount of time spent on the computer during your job search?  This more efficient way of approaching on-line job search should allow you to spend more time networking with people – a key to finding your dream job.

1.       Create an account at http://www.indeed.com/ .  You can save your jobs and notes permanently and access them from any computer by creating a my.indeed account in seconds.

2.       Develop a list of key words to be used during the on-line job search process.

3.       Direct job search emails to your email address listed in your Indeed profile by using Alerts.  Alerts provide a stream of email updates sent to you using your desired key words.  It is highly recommended to set the frequency of alerts to daily.

4.       Choose which jobs to apply to using this efficient method of screening job postings.  This should drastically reduce time spent plowing through all of the ‘noise’ in the literally thousands of job boards on the internet.

5.       Spend time networking – a much more effective way to land a job – rather than being tied to plowing through job boards all day long.

About Indeed: for job seekers - Indeed.com is a search engine for jobs, allowing job seekers to find jobs posted on thousands of company career sites and job boards.

An excellent YouTube tutorial for this process exists at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gqsnA2Lk-0