3 Tips to improve your online job search

If hunting for a job online is taking up too much time and yielding few results, you may want to adjust your game plan.

Millions of unemployed men and women would love to get a call to go back to work tomorrow. That’s why so many scour job boards looking for new employment or freelance opportunities, a process so tedious that it can become a job in itself. Here are a few tips designed to get you off the computer and back to work.

1. Feed Your Way to Work

The bulk of online job hunting is spent jumping from job website to website. Why not cut your time by having links to that content sent to one location? RSS syndication allows websites to distribute “feeds” — bits of text and images sent directly to another program or reader. Instead of going to several websites, links to job postings are sent directly to your reader. RSS is essentially bringing the web to you rather than you to the web.

RSS feeds are available at several job websites, including Monster.ca, Craigslist.org, and Indeed.ca. Depending on the website, you can access these feeds by category or search term. Look around for a link listing the feeds or search for an RSS icon, typically looking something like this:

You will need an RSS reader in order to access RSS feeds. Google, AOL, MSN, Page Flakes, Netvibes, and various other websites offer readers and explain the set-up process easily. You won’t see full job postings from some sites, but you will cut down on loading times and be able to quickly scan repeat searches.

2. Tweet your way to freelance/side jobs

Make no mistake about it — Twitter is oversaturated and not the best place to job hunt. However, business is conducted on Twitter and some job leads can be found. Not every company can afford to pay to advertise positions on all the job boards, so it stands to reason that Human Resource reps or employees will take advantage of free advertising on Twitter.

There’s also quite a bit of industry-specific networking happening on Twitter. If you are a make-up artist or photographer, you should follow other artists, magazine editors, or people plugged into your industry. PR or marketing professionals can do the same and build a repertoire with peers to be clued in when opportunities open up.

3. Reach out to other professionals on social networks

An old classmate added me to LinkedIn and told me that he was looking for work in our subsequent chats. My company wasn’t hiring at the time, but he was wise to reestablish our link. When I read about a job that required expertise in a field my classmate worked in, I forwarded the information to him.

My classmate was not hired for the job, but he pursued an opportunity that he otherwise wouldn’t have discovered. Imagine how powerful it must be to have similar advocates plugged in to a field looking out for you. Other classmates, former interns, and ex co-workers keeping an eye open for him led to more opportunities and eventually a new job! Remember that one of the best, proven ways to find a job is to be recommended by an employee or trusted source tied to the company. Don’t be afraid to build relationships with your contacts – current and former – in your search to find employment.

Filed Under: Productivity Tools
Tags: business, Networking, Social Networking