Get personal, get job

Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Chris Hughes Courier Contributor

Read more: Get personal, get job - Boston Business Journal

Relying too much on Internet job boards, and relying too little on networking, can result in prolonged unemployment.
That’s because this is a job market where employers are routinely bombarded with hundreds of inquiries for advertised positions, according to human resources professionals and recruiters.

“A person spending most of their time online looking for a job is going to have a long and painful search,” said Julie Bauke, president of Congruity Career Consulting. “In a tough economy it is hard to stand out by throwing your résumé in that big, black hole because the number of people doing that naturally increases.” And with so many candidates for companies to choose from, Bauke estimates less than 10 percent of people obtain a job advertised online at popular sites such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com or TheLadders.com.

Jobs boards are convenient and easy to navigate, but have become a crutch too many job hunters lean on exclusively, said Derek Jackson, managing partner at Summit Solutions Group. “The Internet has become the first place people look, and unfortunately some rely solely on what they find on job postings online or on corporate websites,” Jackson said.
Donna Trainor, human resources manager at Procter & Gamble Co., experiences firsthand the intense competition for positions advertised on the company’s website. “The high volume of applicants and applications we get every year are primarily online, which sometimes make it hard for people to get jobs,” she said.

Internet searches on jobs boards are not necessarily fruitless, but job seekers should spend less time online and invest more in building a network, Jackson said. It is crucial to build a network comprised of colleagues and friends, create profiles on social networking sites such as LinkedIn to connect with other professionals and be purposeful in attempts to reach out to those already in a position to be helpful. “The best and most effective place to find a solid job lead is going to be your network,” Jackson said. “For most people in that professional rank, the majority of them will find their next opportunity through someone in their own network.”

Since a greater emphasis is being placed on the importance of networking, it is critical job seekers project a professional image at all times within their network. “Everyone is basically their own brand right now,” said Cheryl Besl, public relations director at

Topic Design. “You need to be sure that you are conveying an image you want to convey through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace because an employer is going to Google applicants on those social networking sites.” Besl said an excellent way for professionals to improve their personal brand and network is to volunteer for a worthy cause. “It is expected today that professionals are going to be philanthropic or be on a nonprofit committee,” she said. “And it’s a great chance to network, to expose yourself to new people and maybe even broaden your skill set.”

College job fairs provide an opportunity for soon-to-be or recent graduates to build connections.
“We do a lot of our recruiting on campuses since most of our hiring is done with people fresh out of college, so it would be a great help to network with people from P&G that come to campus to recruit,” Trainor said. Candidates able to establish a relationship inside the organization gain a distinct advantage over the rest of the applicant pool. An overlooked method to initiate contact with a recruiter is a simple telephone call, said Paul Wehner, senior search and leadership consultant at The Human Capital Group and The Taplow Group. “There’s a tendency to over utilize e-mail to communicate with recruiters that are overwhelmed with more e-mails than they can manage,” said Wehner, who is also the staffing and recruiting chair at the

Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association. “If they’ve contacted me about a position, I’m glad to get their phone call as opposed to getting three e-mails. I think the world has become over focused on e-mail as a way of communicating and under focused on use of their phone.” Jackson suggests that after job seekers learn the identity of the recruiter filling a position, they leverage a network contact at that firm who can place a phone call, send a message via e-mail or personally visit human resources to make a recommendation on behalf of the candidate.
“It comes as a great comfort to a hiring manager when someone you know and trust recommends a candidate,” Jackson said. “Internal recruiters are more open to looking closer at that candidate based on the fact that top talent doesn’t recommend anything other than that, so there’s a lot of credibility in that network.”
“The people who already know you, and at least think somewhat highly of you, are the people invested in helping and will speak positively on your behalf,” Bauke said.


Read more: Get personal, get job - Boston Business Journal