[David Strom's Web Informant] 25 January 2010: It's all about the jobs

[David Strom]

Web Informant, 25 January 2010: It's all about the jobs

Even Conan can't keep his job, although I am sure many of us would
welcome a multi-million dollar payout as he got last week. But as our
economy tries to re-start itself, I have seen first-hand how hard it
is for people to get new jobs. Over the past seven months, I have been
working with our local Regional Chamber and Growth Association in an
effort called the St. Louis Job Angels, to help get information about
new jobs quickly disseminated to the right people, and also provide
self-help and peer networking to job seekers.

The effort was started nationally by consultant Mark Stelzner and has
since become very successful here in St. Louis. We have more than 600
people on our LinkedIn group and a new job is posted almost daily. We
also send out the postings via Twitter too, although trying to fit an
entire job description into 100 or so characters is a challenge. Based
on these efforts, I have some advice for employers and job seekers
that I want to share.

First off, if you are going to post your opening online, make sure
your Web jobs board is both search and Twitter-friendly. Try to have
unique and simple URLs that people can email and Tweet to bring job
seekers directly to the position at hand. Put all the information
about the job on one page, including salary range, prerequisites, and
reasonable experiences and skills required. Include a job number or
some other identifying string that job applicants can use and reTweet
so that others can quickly find the opening. And be specific about how
to be contacted and with what information.

You would be surprised (well, maybe not) how many job openings I look
at that don't have this basic information. This isn't rocket science
(and we do have a few openings here in St. Louis for rocket
scientists, believe me) and you would think that Al Gore still hasn't
gotten around to inventing the Internet, what with some of the
postings that I see.

Some online job boards that are part of individual companies are
behind registration walls, so you have to provide all sorts of
information about yourself before you can get to see the actual jobs
themselves. Bad idea! You want people to browse your board, because
they might see something else that they are more qualified or more
interested in.

There is a reason not to skimp on descriptions. The more information
you can provide the job seeker, the better and more of a match your
applicants will be when it comes time to apply.

The unique URL per job makes it easier to reTweet the openings: you
use a URL shortening service such as Bit.ly and you can send out the
job post quickly without having to worry that Twitter will mangle the
URL or that users won't be able to find it on the Internet someplace.

Some recruiters are told not to divulge the company name for fear that
the company will be buried in resumes. Fair enough. But then provide
more detail about the job so that applicants can understand what they
are getting themselves into.

Also, be fair about telecommuting options. It is time to realize that
many of us want to stay put for various reasons. If your management
can deal with finding the best candidate in another city, then support
this practice. I mean, we are in 2010, people!

Second, spend some time on LinkedIn. Yes, there are still plenty of
places where you can post job openings, including Monster, Craigslist,
and hundreds of other more specialized sites. And yes, employers
should be promiscuous and post openings widely too. But the right use
of LinkedIn by both employers and job seekers can be useful.

I keep adjusting my online LinkedIn profile all the time, even though
I have had it for many years. I keep forgetting to add particular
experiences, or to ask for references from previous bosses. So don't
try to create your entire profile in one sitting, but come back to it
frequently. I have some more tips on how to improve your LinkedIn
presence here if you want to view my slides:
http://slideshare.net/davidstrom

Most of the people I know are still new at using this service, and
some are unaware about the more advanced features such as Groups and
Answers that can help augment your job searching and make the service
more valuable too. Answers can help build your expertise and
demonstrate your knowledge of a topic or niche. Groups can be used, as
we do for St. Louis Job Angels group, how to find others who share
similar traits and can be quickly scanned for updated information.

LinkedIn can be both a blessing and a curse. Getting groups setup is a
slow process, and you have to follow an arcane series of rules if you
want to play in their sandbox: for example, as group Admin, I can send
out exactly no more than one weekly email to the group. I try not to
bury people in emails, but still, sometimes you want to get the word
out if we have had a lot of postings or some with very short response
times.

Third, become better at marketing yourself. One of my colleagues here
and the supervisor of the MissouriCareerSource local office, Frank
Alaniz, talks about how to develop a resume that will present your
qualifications in a way that a job interviewer or HR screener can
quickly see you online. Most employers spend less than three minutes
reviewing resumes, which means you have to grab them at hello:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=d6kgf4r_20gr2v5xg8

Good luck with your own job search, and maybe you too can host a
late-night show in the near future.