Job Hunting Online

June 21, 2011

Interview with Mark Emery Bolles, author of the book What Color Is Your Parachute? Guide to Job-Hunting Online, Sixth Edition: Blogging, Career Sites, Gateways, Getting Interviews, Job Boards, Job Search ... Resumes, Research Sites, Social Networking

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Mike Carruthers:
Today the search for a new job usually starts on the Internet. But it’s important to keep in mind that…

Mark Emery Bolles:
When you’re looking for jobs you’re really looking for people and so what the Internet is just another way of finding people.
 

Mark Emery Bolles, author of the book Guide to Job-Hunting Online, says it’s logical to think that the big jobsites like Monster.com and Careerbuilder are great ways to find work but the fact is; usually not.

They don’t publish actual success rates but they’re really quite low. Estimates are somewhere between .4% and 10% depending on the field that you’re in.

As Mark said job hunting is all about people. Employers would much prefer to hire someone they know or someone referred by someone they know.

Whenever you can find some sort of networking hook into a company you’re always better off - if you can somehow find a name that you can telephone through a friend of a friend or some other way that’s always a great way to go.

No matter how many connections you have you can always have more by signing up at sites like Linkedin.

The first thing that I would do is I would go and sign up with Linkedin, I would write a good resume, and I would put up a personal website where you can direct employers.