***If Used Right, Job Boards Can Actually Help Boomers Find A Job

A large percentage of individuals, including Boomers, who are unemployed spend countless hours searching job boards such as Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Theladders.com and Craigslist. Many people will send out 2-3 resumes per day and never get a response. Unfortunately for these individuals, it is very likely that they will not receive responses to their resume. Often an employer will receive hundreds and in some cases, thousands of resumes per posted job. In a time where there are many qualified candidates applying for one position, the person reviewing the resumes will not review all resumes sent to them. There is just not enough time in the day.

It is also likely that the person your resume goes to is not the hiring manager. More times than not, your resume will be reviewed by a Human Resources Assistant, who will then pass your resume along to the hiring manager, if they feel you meet the proper requirements.

So, how can these job boards help you? These boards can help you identify open positions. Once you find a position you are interested in applying for, you can conduct your own research to find an “in” into the organization. Perhaps you have a contact on a social networking site who can give you the contact info for the hiring manager. Maybe the office is close by and you can stop in and personally drop off your resume. Using job boards to identify positions and your own research to apply can give you an advantage over individuals who blindly apply over the job boards.

Sites such as: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can really be beneficial in this endeavor. I recently was working with an individual who had spent 3 months applying for positions at several different job boards. After determining that her strategy was not effective, we decided to use the job boards as nothing more than a starting point. She began to post on LinkedIn and Twitter with “status updates” that resembled the following – “I am looking to speak with anyone in my network that either works for or knows someone at (XYZ Company)”. She started to receive multiple emails from people in her personal and professional network. Many of these individuals were able to provide her with the “in” that she needed to get her resume reviewed by the hiring manager.

After 1.5 months, she had received calls back to 6 of the 10 jobs she was interested in, interviewed with 4 of them and was offered 2 jobs. Fortunately, this is not an isolated example. I have worked with at least 15 other individuals that have been successful using this approach. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME ANYMORE! Spending hours sending resumes blindly is not a productive way to search for a new career, work smarter by allowing your networks to help you out.