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5 Tips for Using New Technology to Find a Job

Published: Nov 21, 2011

 Interviewing       Job Search       Resumes & Cover Letters       

For years, there were only a few ways to look for a job.  You could search through the classifieds and hit the ground running, traveling from one company to another and filling out applications while leaving your resume behind.  That’s just not the way you do things anymore.  It hasn’t been for some time now. Technology changed all that and today, candidates know the importance of using computers to find work.  But because technology is always changing, the way we search for a job is changing much quicker than it ever has before.  We are moving light speed in new directions, as it pertains to the job search.  What you know today will change tomorrow.  Here are just some ideas that will help you keep pace:

Man With Laptop1. Think outside the job board

Looking to find more qualified candidates, a number of companies are extending their search beyond the typical job boards, where just about anyone and everyone apply.  To find more suited candidates, companies are going back to using their own websites to post a position. But how do you find them?  Job seekers may want to consider using LinkUp, which lets candidates search more than 22,000 companies by geographic location and job description keywords.  There’s also an app for that.  Job Compass is an app that uses the locator in a job seeker's iPhone to hone in on a job description within a 5- to 100- mile radius.

2. Practice interviewing

In addition to following Vault’s own in-depth advice on job interviews, including the questions to ask before the big day, the questions to ask during the interview, and ways to follow up, job seekers who don't have a lot of experience can also tap into InterviewWow, a website that allows them to practice their interview questions, as well as provide written questions and tips about the process well ahead of their scheduled meeting. The site also features a number of videos displaying different types of interviews.

3. Avoid the resume black hole

There are a few websites that can help candidates update their resume to make sure that it matches certain job descriptions and contains the most relevant information.  Resunate helps applicants override many companies' resume-tracking systems by assessing the keywords in a candidate's resume and automatically edit it for a better match.  ResumeBear is a tracking tool that allows applicants to find out if anyone has opened up their documents. It is available free online and as an application for certain mobile devices. While the new technology does allow candidates to see how many times their materials have been opened, it cannot tell who actually looked at the documents.

4. Veterans Job Bank

As part of the Obama Administration's efforts to get more veterans back to work, Google recently launched the Veterans Job Bank, which can generate auto-formatted resumes that can easily be edited to customize to fit any job description.

5. Apps for resume building

Pocket Resume is another new technology designed to help job seekers make a resume and send it out on a mobile device. The application, which costs $2.99, is a quick way for candidates to create a PDF format or their resume or update an existing document, which is especially good for use at networking events when there is no computer available.

--Posted Courtesy of Brafton (additional material by Jon Minners, Vault.com)

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