Preface:
A Little About today’s blog. I know people normally come here for health and wellness tips, but today’s article is going to be a little different. I know there are a of people our there who are currently looking for employment. Have a stable job with a stable paycheck can be vital to our mental health. Just having a place to go everyday can be good for our psyche. Now that many of us are stuck at home, it can be very draining. This article is devoted to helping them with resources and reviews of my past experiences with many different types job seeking companies.
Advice for the Older Generation When it comes to job hunting.
A common theme, pre-Covid, for millennials has been their parents didn’t understand how the world has changed since they’ve got their jobs. Now, many Baby-Boomers are finding out just how much the world has changed. I have listed a few of the new ways of the world below with explanations:
- Never go to a place with your physical resume.
- 99% of the time, they will just direct you to their online site (and probably look at your funny)
- You should not always wear a suit and tie, no matter what the job.
- Unless you are an attorney going to court a full suit and tie is not needed. Most employment places have very casual dress codes, and dressing up won’t really impress people. They just might think you’re weird.
- Don’t worry if you don’t have an online presence or a LinkedIn Page.
- You absolutely need an online presence, at bare minimum a Linkedin Profile. An employer would rather scan through your Linkedin profile on their computer, then go through a physical stack of resumes. They’re only looking for keywords anyway. A
- After you upload your resume to a company site, be prepared to enter all that information again.
- Some employer websites are smart enough to fill in the information based on your resume, but not all are. Be prepared to fix/re-enter all that information every time you fill out a job posting.
- Make sure you’re Facebook/Instagram/Tumbler, etc. accounts are set to private.
- Companies are now routinely checking their employees Facebook pages and looking for pictures that might hurt their company images.
Note:
All empowers are not the same. Some places may do things differently, but I believe most places will follow the three rules above.
Resume Review Sites:
https://www.theladders.com/resume-reviewer
https://resumeworded.com/score
https://employmentboost.com/free-resume-review-evaluation/
Online Job Poster Review.
After you’ve painstakingly gone through your resume several times, it’s time to post it to your job boards. But there are so many different sites to post to and you can’t really be sure if anyone at the company is actually looking at it. Not to mention, many of the job boards are posting the same job. Here is my review of some common online job sites:
My Personal Reviews:
- Monster.com: Good site, but can be tricky to actually know if the company you applied for actually looked at your resume.
- CareerBuilder.com: Great Site. Most responsive about telling you when/if the position was filled.
- Linkedin.com: Great site for networking, but not so great about responding to filling out job posts. Often redirects
- ZipRecuriter.com: This site is younger than the other sites, and offers less results when searching. That can mean the search results are more closely related to your keyword search. This can be good or bad depending on your point of view.
- Snagajob.com: Good site if you want to get a low paying job. Most posts on this site will not get you a job that pays very much. I wouldn’t bother with this one.
- The Company Website: Whatever company you plan to apply, applying on their website is the best chance you have of getting your resume to the attention of someone who can hire you.
How to Use the Internet to Your Advantage
The internet is a two-way streak. Just because your employer can look at your online profile (reminder to turn on your Facebook Privacy settings so they can’t do this) you can also read reviews of their company. Just Google their name and look for the reviews. (Don’t go to their site for reviews, they won’t post anything negative). Always read the negative posts about the company, because there is always a grain of truth to them. Workers who are pissed at their employer are way more likely to tell people exactly how it in their company anonymously and online.
"Always read the negative posts about the company, becasue there is always a grain of truth to them"
Beware the Scams/Employers who just need bodies to fill.
Many “recruiters” are just looking for bodies and used sites like CareerBuilder and Monster for just that purpose. I always know that when I upload a new resume to these sites, I’m going to get a post from an insurance company telling me I’d be great fit for their company. Also, a lot of door-to-door sales companies employ the same practice, but they’ll usually call you. These jobs are find for people actually looking for them, but if you submitted a resume online with nursing as your background, you know they just picked your name out of a hat.
Caution
The thing about the jobs mentioned above, which they won’t tell you until you get to sit down with their manager for an interview is:
- It’s 100% commissioned based
- It’s door-to-door sales
- It’s telemarketing
- They don’t offer benefits
To Avoid This Trap
- Ask them the name of the company. The person on the phone will usually try to say the name of their company quickly so you don’t catch it or look up the reviews online. Just ask them the name and do that.
- Ask what about your resume makes them think you’d be a good fit for the job. Most of these companies haven’t even looked at your resume and you’ll be able to tell if they have by asking them this question. A lot of times they will be looking at your resume for the first time when you ask this question. You’ll know when this happens.
- Ask if it’s commissioned based. Sometimes the jobs are 100%commissioned based other times they have a salary with commission. But ask if said base salary is minimum wage.
- Ask if the job has benefits.
In Conclusion:
Somethings change but somethings stay the same. The way we fill out job applications may have changed, but networking is still the number one way to get a job. The pandemic has made it so there are less jobs than there were, which means it’s an employer’s market. Now may be the time to re-invent yourself while taking a lower paying job. Going back to school may be an option for some and there are thousands upon thousands of FREE online materials you can use to learn new things. Some sites like Lynda.com ask for a monthly fee to teach things like coding. There are also sites like Udemy.com, in which you just pay for the classes you want to take (NEVER pay full price for classes on Udemy. Always wait for the sale. A $100 will drop to $10-15 when it’s on sale)
#Jobseekers, #Jobadvice #Jobwarning #AdviceforOlderjobSeekers #Resumereview #Careerseekers
See More:
See More Blogs here
Check us Out on Facebook
Check us Out on Instagram