PODCAST 9 How to get the most out of tech when job searching Viewpoint careers advice blog

PODCAST 9 How to get the most out of tech when job searching How can you use technology to enhance your job search? Listen to our podcast to find out: Podcast notes: Can you talk us through the options that exist when applying for a job at the moment? The short answer is that there are a lot of different ways that businesses can choose to advertise a job. This can range from the job being advertised on a companys own website, to individual recruitment company websites, to job boards to social propositions like LinkedIn and Xing. To explain this in a bit more detail, recruitment agencies typically have a website, as well as an app or mobile responsive website so that jobseekers can search and apply for jobs online. Job boards are a more recent digital-only phenomenon.  Examples such as Indeed or Monster are commonly known as aggregators. Just to explain the term aggregator a little more these are really comparison websites they list jobs from a lot of different recruitment agencies or direct from businesses on a single website, or job board. And when a jobseeker clicks on one of the jobs on the aggregator website they often get sent through to that recruiter or business website. The user experience that they offer is solely digital, and all about offering a larger volume of jobs than an individual recruiter can. And then the final way is via social platforms like LinkedIn. LinkedIn started out as a networking product which enabled people to connect with each other, but, over time, their product proposition has evolved quite a lot and has broadened to include jobs that have been posted either by a recruiter or direct from a company. Of course a lot of us start our job search journey on a search engine, and predominantly on Google. From your search results on Google you can find yourself on a recruiter’s website or a company website and apply for a job from there. Do you think that there is too much choice for candidates now? Arguably yes, but I think on balance having choice is a good thing. All recruitment agencies and job boards will want to get you to register with them and send a CV through. And if you take the time to do this, and upload your CV onto the recruitment agency website or job board then you will actually save time for yourself in the future, because the next time that you go back, your CV will already be there and you’ll be able to apply straight from there. Aggregators like Monster and Indeed, as well as LinkedIn have made the user experience easier for jobseekers. So we now have, LinkedIn Easy Apply and Indeed Fast Apply, and it’s the same advice job boards and recruitment websites too. The same job title can mean different things in different companies, so it’s worth varying your search terms too to maximise your job search results. What would be a good example of this? Well I think if we look at marketing for example, it might be worth searching say Marketing Executive, Marketing Manager and Marketing Analyst because all the roles that could come back in the search results may be relevant to you. So it’s using similar, but slightly different and nuanced search terms to get the most search results back. So how should a job seeker decide which job boards to target? The job seeking process can be time consuming and time can be a rare commodity for people these days. It might be that as part of your general job searching you always find yourself on the same job board or the same recruitment agency websites, possibly because they have the most suitable jobs that are most relevant for you. If so, then it would make sense to register with these sites to make it easier when you return there time and again. Your CV will be saved and you can apply for jobs in the future more quickly. Or through word of mouth, or perhaps more likely, through your social network, you may have heard from a friend or colleague who had a really great job application experience and so you can choose to register with the same recruitment agency or platform as them, and then hopefully when you find an opportunity that you apply for, you will have a similar successful and good experience. And what is your advice for candidates? Take the time. Simple as that. Its not really any different advice to what you would do in a non-digital situation. If you put the effort into creating your CV, or tailoring your CV for different roles and writing cover letters, then you are much more likely to find a job. So spend time looking at job details, spend time refining you CV and your cover letter to make sure it matches the job you’re requesting. If there is a consultant available then give them a call to discuss an open position and perhaps your longer term career ambitions too. So much of our time is spent in the digital world but it is just as important to prepare, take care and pay attention to detail when applying for jobs online. What is the mobile experience like for candidates applying for jobs? Thats an interesting question and the mobile experience does vary hugely across different websites and apps. So mobile usage in general is different across different ages and demographics. Mobile behaviour is that browsing activity which is easy to do on the move.  So just think about how much time you spend on your phone whilst commuting on the bus or train or whilst you are waiting to meet a friend for example. And the second reason is because a CV isn’t always available from a phone. Now it is possible to apply for a job on different websites without a CV but you should remember that this might not provide a recruitment consultant or in-house recruiter with much information about yourself, or as much information as you could possibly give them. And if a consultant has hundreds of applications to look through it is much easier to discard someone who they know the least about. So my advice would be if at all possible then keep a copy of your CV in a cloud environment, for example in Dropbox, or Google drive, etc. Is applying online not rather anonymous? Yes it is and if you don’t hear back about your application it can be frustrating too. Job boards and aggregators only have a digital platform sitting behind their website there are no people to talk to or get advice from. With recruitment agencies, a plus point is that their knowledgeable and informed recruiters are able to provide advice and help you in your job search and career progression. Therefore on a recruitment agency website you will often see details on their job pages about the actual recruitment consultant for the job so that you can get in touch with them. It’s also usually possible to track your application online, too. When you apply for a job you will typically see a confirmation screen showing you that your application has been submitted and you will also receive an email confirming that you application has been sent. Then in order to track any progress, you should be able to log into the website, you should be able to access an account area just for you. And you will see a record of the job, or jobs that you have applied for. If you are selected for interview you would then expect to receive a follow up email and also be see any status updates on that application, again in the account area of this website. Online chat is something that Hays has introduced for some of our markets. It is a good example of another option for jobseekers as there is a real person available to assist with answers to queries or help with an application process. This is a digital feature which is often expected in banking or in retail sectors, so we are all used to chatting online in various parts of our lives, and it is now considered to be part of the overall customer service, and is definitely a positive customer communications channel for us. And all of this is where the joined up nature of online and offline is really visible they are both part of the overall customer experience and need to be cohesive. Apart from searching and applying for jobs, what else is available for jobseekers and businesses online? We always tend to think about jobs being at the core of websites and the online recruitment world, and whilst they definitely are the centrepiece, there is a lot more on offer too. Job alert emails is an obvious thing to mention. The majority of recruiters and job boards offer the facility for you to sign up to job alerts. This is generally based on the search term that you have searched with, and results in you receiving an email on, probably, a daily basis containing jobs that match your search. So, going back to my previous point about using good keywords, we used the marketing example, it may be valuable to sign up for job alerts using similar, but slightly different, search terms. Then there are hundreds of tools and digital experiences available, examples are, salary checkers, CV creators and career development checklists and several websites have some of these tools. But alone the may not actually provide much value for you. A lot of them are really good, don’t get me wrong, but just by themselves they are not necessarily going to be the most help for you. What is more helpful, in my opinion, is the amount of content to watch and read, and some recruitment websites include the ability to read trusted career advice and download white papers applicable to certain sectors or HR themes. For example having world-leading content from the Hays Journal available in digital format, and also blog posts from the Hays Viewpoint blog, these are really valuable in terms of being able to prepare for the job search, application and interview process. In a world where video is the means by which so much of our online activity is consumed, there are also things like webinars that you can sign-up for on various topics and watch either in real-time or on demand after the event. Facebook Live and Periscope are also being used to greater effect for live-streaming. I couldn’t answer this question without briefly mentioning social networks as well, obviously everybody is active on different social networks and from a jobseeker point of view, you should be able to read, watch, listen and access all relevant content for you via the most appropriate channels and devices that you use. I am an active LinkedIn user, so I should be able to access this via my phone then? Absolutely and it will be at the time of your choosing. When you want to and how you want to, and in the way you want it to be delivered. How do you think the online job seeking experience will change in the future? I think there will be a few changes. That like all industries, the online experience in recruitment will become more mobile. It is also worth mentioning Artificial Intelligence, (or, AI for short). It is talked about a lot and there is a lot of excitement about the potential, as well as fear as to where the technology involving bots and algorithms could take us. But the key benefit I can see is that this potential can be harnessed and used to enhance the experience for all of us. And my final point would be to say that this is not just about a race to have the best technology. As already mentioned, the online experience for jobseekers needs to be robust and secure, so that you can access websites you need at the time you need them. But more value comes from having this supported and enhanced by the best people and advice too. We all know that technology will continue to evolve and provide excellent experiences, but having a trusted recruitment consultant available to assist you is a definite plus point for jobseekers. What is the best piece of career advice that you could offer our listeners? In terms of online and digital, you should make sure that you have consistency across all of the websites, job boards, and profiles that you maintain. Whether it’s a CV that has been uploaded to a job board, or your profile on LinkedIn. Your online and offline persona needs to be needs to be consistent, needs to be accurate, and needs to have attention to detail, so that whatever you are applying for, the application process that you give is the best that you possibly can. Looking for more careers advice? Then you may find some of our previous podcasts and blogs  useful: 3 quick and easy ways to refresh your CV 4 LinkedIn developments jobseekers need to know about The biggest social media mistakes jobseekers make 7 time-saving job search tips Six ways to stay job application ready 4 reasons you aren’t getting any interviews Subscribe to the HaysWorldwide podcast Did you enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the Hays Worldwide podcast on SoundCloud and download it on Apple Podcasts.