Three of the UK’s most well-known names in the CEIAG world give some of their best advice for finding a job over the internet.

 

Taken from You’re Hired! Job Hunting Online by Tristram Hooley, Jim Bright and David Winter

 

We do pretty much everything online these days. Whether it is ordering takeaways, watching the latest Netflix series or finding out what Kim Kardashian is up to, we tend to go to Google and Facebook before we go anywhere else.

Finding a job or building your career is no different. If you are serious about finding the career that you want you need to get online. We argue that there are seven steps to using the internet to get the career that you want:

  1. Recognise that change is inevitable and that you need to be an adventurous explorer.

    The internet is changing the way that work, recruitment and career works. You need to embrace this change if you want to be successful in your career. This is not about throwing away your CV but it is about being willing to try Linkedin or even risk embarrassment in trying a video CV.

  2. Information is power and you should collect as much as you can.

    Information about jobs and opportunities is out there on the internet, but you need to be good at looking for it. Brush up your search skills, set up a load of automatic alerts and tell your social networks to pass any job opportunities your way. If you spot the job first you may just beat your competitors to it.

  3. The internet is a jungle and so you need to be a critical thinker.

    With so much information out there, you can’t rely on all of it to be accurate and up to date. You need to develop the skills to critically evaluate the information you find. Be prepared to recognise the information that you get sent which is biased, partial, inaccurate or actually part of some kind of criminal scam. Remember if a job, course or opportunity looks too good to be true, it probably is! There really aren’t that many jobs as beer tasters!

  4. Networks are vital and so you should get good at connecting to people.

    Everyone has got a Facebook account these days but are you asking the people in your network to help you out in realising your career dream. Of course you don’t want to badger your friends too much, so that is why you should also get onto professional networks like LinkedIn.

  5. It is all about communication and so you need to speak clearly and make sure you are heard.

    You need to think carefully about what future employers will want to hear from you and what the best way to make contact them is. Above all avoid text speak if you want to be taken seriously.

  6. Building your brand and tell a compelling story about yourself.

    The internet allows us to publish content about ourselves and our interests and to make that available to the world. You can make this work for your career. Make sure the next time an employer Googles you they find something positive and not a picture of you with a traffic cone on your head.

  7. Your digital footprint reflects on your career – curate it carefully!

    Most of us have created some kind of digital footprint. You should know what information about you exists online and think about the kind of impression you are making (remember, no information makes an impression too). Don’t panic! If you find something you don’t like you can do something about it – but you have to know it is there.

Making use of the internet for your career is not rocket science, but it does require some thought and effort. If you get it right employers will be beating their way to your door. If you get it wrong you will find that you miss some opportunities and see others slip through your fingers!