Effective Job Board Strategies: Part 1

The Role of Job Boards in a Job Search

• 🎯 Job boards are often the first place people look for jobs, but they can be a trap if relied upon too heavily.
• 💡 They represent activity, not necessarily accomplishment, and should be balanced with other search strategies like networking and contacting recruiters.
• ⚠️ While not the most important part of a job search, job boards are still a necessary component of an effective strategy.

Strategic Job Board Selection

• 🔢 The first step is to select eight job boards, focusing on four categories: general, industry-specific, aggregators, and location-specific.
• 🔍 General boards like Monster and CareerBuilder should be vetted by searching for relevant job titles, salaries, and geographies to ensure a market exists.
• 🏢 For industry-specific boards, research which ones your target companies are using, as competitors likely advertise there too.
• 🌐 Aggregators like Indeed and Simply Hired scrape multiple boards and company sites, offering broad coverage without needing to visit individual sources.
• 📍 Location-specific boards are crucial for geographical job searches, even down to community areas within a city.

Optimizing Your Job Board Presence

• 📝 Posting a profile and resume is essential for job boards to reach out to you and for recruiters to find you.
• 🔄 Update your profile and resume monthly to ensure they appear in recent searches, as recruiters often filter by update date.
• 🔑 Utilize RSS feeds to save time by receiving job alerts directly, rather than manually checking boards.
• 📊 Review your status and effectiveness quarterly to ensure your efforts on job boards are yielding results.
• 🔗 LinkedIn should also be used as a form of electronic job search assistance, similar to job boards.

Profile and Resume Best Practices

• 👤 Complete your profile thoroughly to increase the chances of being found by recruiters; more information is generally better.
• 💻 In your profile's skills section, include specific keywords, computer languages, and software that recruiters might search for.
• 📄 Upload a single, tailored resume to job boards, focusing on the role you most want, as recruiters may be looking for various positions.
• 📛 Name your resume file with your name and the current month (e.g., "Mark Horseman July 2011 Resume.doc") to help recruiters identify it.
• ⏳ Regularly re-uploading your resume monthly ensures it appears as current in recruiter searches, even if no significant changes have been made.