When one office door closes, you need to find another one to open and walk through, and fast. While the perfect job isn't exactly going to land in your lap, there are a few things you can do to make the search easier and the Internet is where it's at.
Girl Guides looks at where you should be job-hunting, what you should be doing with your resume and how to extend your online professional presence to secure the ideal job.
Where to start?
There are a number of websites out there, all dedicated to helping potential employers and employees find each other. We took a look at a few, and picked some to recommend for your use.
Career Web: Specializing in the ICT sector, find IT, engineering and financial jobs. Signing up is easy and complete in a few steps, merely select to register as a job-seeker. First, fill in personal information, then add skills to your CV, detail your educational history and select which employment options should show along with your CV. Set options like notice periods and means of being notified of opportunities. Once you've registered, you can search jobs by location and category, and email in response to any placements you might be interested in.
Career Junction: search thousands of fresh jobs online, and find jobs by sector and location. Build your Resume4Life in less than 10 minutes and be notified of job opportunities that match your CV. Find out who's hiring, set up job alerts and track your job applications. Must be a member to search or apply for jobs.
Biz Community: is where you'll look to find Marketing and Media job listings that are updated daily. Browse by category and location, and apply by e-mail for jobs you think you'd be suited to. You don't have to be a member to search jobs.
Pnet.co.za: One of the only sites to offer truly practical career-oriented advice like how to answer the most dreaded interview questions, how to write the perfect cover letter for every job scenario and deals with your rights and obligations under labour law. Register as a user, find out which companies are hiring, search for jobs by industry and location and create job alerts.
Job Mail: (www.jobmail.co.za) Find jobs across every industry sector and in all locations, search current vacancies and apply for them online, and recruiters offer positions free for immediate response, so you're more than likely to be head-hunted here.
Resumes: using online resources to create the perfect CV
Once you've found some potential jobs on the Internet, you'll need to apply for them. To do so you'll need a resume and a covering letter. It's easy to create a professional CV and covering letter using the right online tools. Resume templates are available for Microsoft Word, taking the guesswork out of formatting and content. All you need do is open File | New Document and scroll down through the template options and select Resumes and CVs.
If you can't find a template you like there, merely choose to search the Microsoft Office Online template gallery, which should give you hundreds of options, from job-specific templates to introductory cover letters for you to choose from and download.
LinkedIn: who are you on the net?
LinkedIn is an online network for professionals. Use it to build relationships, meet new contacts, market yourself and find a new job if you need one. Before you connect with others, you'll need to register and spend a bit of time creating a compelling profile.
While your page will detail your work history, don't assume you can copy and paste your resume and be done with it. Your profile page should reflect your professional interests, passions, and ambitions. The site will walk you through filling in the blanks, but you'll want to think ahead about two areas: first, defining yourself and secondly, what you've achieved and what you'd like to achieve.
Define yourself through a few words that will appear as a sub-heading under your name. choose carefully, as this is the first thing potential employers and networkers will see. When discussing your achievements, don't merely list your past experiences, instead talk about what you're passionate about, and what you learnt from each job.
LinkedIn profile checklist: make sure you include:
- A solid headline with keywords relevant to your industry.
- A picture so potential employers can be sure you're a real person.
- How you prefer to be contacted — through LinkedIn, by e-mail, or over the phone.
- What you want to be contacted about - you can select interests like reference requests, consulting offers, or career opportunities.
The next step is to build your network. LinkedIn will allow you to search for people you know to see if they're already members and once you connect to someone, you can also look at the profiles of anyone they know, and in turn anyone those people know and that's how your network can grow exponentially. Once you're connected, it's time to put that network to use. There are three main things your network can do for you: answer business-related questions, make recommendations and introductions, and provide company information.
Searching for jobs using LinkedIn is easy. Search by location, industry, job level and function and view results from hundreds of job vacancies as posted by other LinkedIn members. Apply for jobs in just a few minutes through the site, no CV required and introduce yourself to potential employers through common connections.
Get satisfied clients or colleagues to write recommendations to really help your profile stand out from the rest, showing you're reliable and a potential valuable asset. LinkedIn also gives you vital statistical information, showing you when your profile turns up in search results and how many times your profile has been viewed.
Once you've found an ideal vacancy, one of the cinchers is usually remuneration. But how do you check that, or get an idea of what you should be earning in that position, when potential employers are so reluctant to talk money in the interview? Use an online salary checker, and it couldn't be easier.
Salary checkers
Mywage.co.za is an online project that provides users a unique tool to check their salaries according to industry and position, as well as receive information on working conditions and pay and source informative articles on labour law.
With a little bit of time and effort spent polishing up the old CV, searching useful online job classifieds and some serious networking, there's no reason why you shouldn't be well on your way to finding the perfect job.
