The Online Job Search - Does it Work?

Looking for jobs in today's market can be tedious and time consuming. With so many websites out there to choose from, where do you begin? You have created your resume and now it's time to put it out there. You register with Monster, Career Builders, Yahoo Hot Jobs, setting up your personal profiles and even job search agents that will send you potential matches based on your experience right?

As you begin to receive those email leads, you are filled with a sense of excitement and hope as numerous job prospects come flooding in. You diligently click the "apply now" box and your resume is sent off to the hiring manager for consideration. You even receive a confirmation email acknowledging your interest. Feeling accomplished and hopeful you wait-weeks, even months and hear nothing. No call from ABC Company to schedule a face to face interview.

This process repeats itself many times and you become a bit discouraged wondering why you aren't being called or considered for this perfectly matched job.

Don't beat yourself up over it. This process really isn't as effective and fool proof as you initially thought.

With millions of people out there competing for the handful of jobs available there are other factors that influence your ability to be chosen.

Many companies are required to post open positions and advertise to the public-even if they already have an internal candidate in mind for this position. So what appears to be available really isn't.

In fact in today's job market, most employers are hiring through networking. It's who you know that is getting you in the door. The internet job search process is like spiraling down a dark endless hole and leading to the frustration and anxiety of job seekers because they aren't getting results from their efforts.

Human Resource departments and Recruiters using these search engines actually scan resumes through their systems to look for key buzz words. If they are looking for an Operations Manager and your resume does not say Operations Manager, chances are you are being over looked and bypassed in this process.

So what can you do in your job search to get noticed?

You first need to know that the employers are looking for. Be proactive and use these online job postings as a tool for positioning yourself. A great online job search resource is Indeed.com they seem to have a collection of jobs that consolidate many of the postings from other search engines. It's easier to manage one search engine than setting up your profile with several others.

Understand and recognize that you may need more than just one standard resume. You have to tailor your resume so that it matches the job descriptions and qualifications the companies are looking for.

Attend a local Job Fair and start networking with those companies who are participation. People need to know who you are, in order to pass your name along.

Start calling up and reconnecting with past associates-if no one knows you need help, they can't help you.

Lastly, don't become discouraged and overly critical of yourself. It's not you! Keep plugging along and network with people, something will come up.