Protecting Your Identity While Job Hunting Online

By Heather Eager

If you’ve conducted online job searches, you know that in the application process you will have to provide some level of personal information to complete the preliminary screening process.
If you are a part of the growing club that feels incredibly uncomfortable giving out your personal information over the Internet, don’t let it slow you down. There are ways to conduct your online job search without exposing yourself to hackers and identity thieves.

Limit Personal Details on Your Resume

As you may know, many online job searches require that you submit your resume electronically so that employers can simply sort through them. In most cases, your resume probably lists your home address and phone number, along with an email address and any other personal details you decide to include. While disclosing this information makes you easier to contact, posting it on a website can leave you very vulnerable to predators of all kinds.
One way to avoid the danger of leaving too many personal details out there for whomever may be lurking on the other side of the computer, is to provide temporary contact information. For instance, you can rent a post office box just during the time of your search. Also, you can get a temporary cell-phone number and email address, both dedicated to the search. By listing this temporary information on your resume, or submitting it with an application, you can increase your privacy and lower your risk of identity theft.

Apply Directly to Employers

It’s not uncommon that, as a part of their online job search, people sign up with job banks that allow them to post their resume on the site. Many jobseekers take this route because of the benefits it offers, including allowing hiring managers and headhunters to locate them more easily.
The only problem with this type of job search is that it leaves your personal information just sitting out there for the world to see. For this reason, some experts suggest that instead of posting your resume on a job site that allows employers and headhunters to find you, you consider searching for jobs on your own and applying to them directly. This can be done by contacting the company and asking if there is a way to email the hiring manager directly for the position. That way, you don’t have to post your resume online – and you don’t have to worry about entering personal details through online forms that get sent who-knows-where.

Take Advantage of Privacy Features

Increasingly, job sites that allow you to post resumes provide privacy features that limit your exposure. By blocking contact information from the general search, you can make it possible for employers to reach you only through a confidential email address created on the site.
Since so many employers require electronic job-application submissions, it’s a good idea to figure out your submission options sooner rather than later. That way, you won’t miss out on any great opportunities because you feel nervous about spilling too many beans.

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Give Your Job Search More Direction

By ARA Content

Job hunting has evolved from searching the classifieds to browsing online job boards and career search engines. But before you get settled in front of your computer, you should ask yourself some important questions – then be prepared to go social.
Marc Scoleri, director of Career Services at The Art Institute of New York City, recommends doing a self-directed job search in conjunction with other search techniques.
A self-directed job search takes into account your personal preferences and businesses of interest. Realizing personal preferences and having a sense of self-awareness as it relates to your career is important when determining which companies to research.
In working with students attending Art Institute schools, Scoleri compiled the following inventory questions, which can help any jobseeker clarify objectives and plan a more focused job search:
• What industry is most interesting to you for a career? Why?
• What geographic location is most appealing?
• What duties do you enjoy doing most and least as they relate to your industry?
• What is the minimum pay you can survive on?
• What topics within your industry do you want to learn most about?
• What are some of the job titles that interest you?
• What position do you want three to five years from now?
• What personal goals can you achieve by obtaining a position in your chosen industry?
• What is your ideal work schedule?
• What employer-offered benefits are important to you?
• Whom can you contact within your industry of choice?
After you’ve answered all the questions, target companies based on your responses. Then contact managers within the departments of interest, even if they are not currently hiring.
"Personally, I’d prefer to interview someone who went out of his or her way to call me directly, over someone who found a posting on some stale job board," Scoleri says. This is where socializing begins and networks are developed.
LinkedIn.com has become one of the most respected online networking tools for professionals. Complete a profile on LinkedIn.com and you’ve taken an important step toward creating a powerful online network. It takes, on average, 65 contacts to create a network large enough to result in substantial and meaningful findings on LinkedIn, notes Victoria Snabon-Heath, career services director at The Art Institute of Tampa. She urges jobseekers to set themselves apart from the ordinary, dime-a-dozen applicants who inundate companies on a daily basis. "Go social. Begin utilizing virtual, social marketing techniques in addition to your online job search."
Snabon-Heath says it’s important that students, recent graduates and the unemployed extend themselves by joining and volunteering with professional organizations in their field of focus. Attend a monthly professional organization meeting, such as one of the local chapters of IEEE if engineering or technology is your profession.
"Students have participated in monthly social mixers in order to meet the hiring managers and directors who may be too busy during the workweek to respond to emails and phone calls from eager prospective hires," she says. "Put yourself out there. It’s who you know that can help get you in the door and what you know that keeps you there."


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Make Job Hunting Job One

By Scott Brown

Many facets of life require discipline: getting up every morning to go to work, paying your bills, putting gas in your car, and countless other things. However, many people consider looking for a new job as a hassle that can be addressed whenever the mood strikes them.
Many Americans today have an ‘it can wait’ attitude, and their career search suffers as a result. Finding a job, just like putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head, requires discipline and extreme effort to accomplish.
People who join the military get a taste of discipline during boot camp and basic training. However, even those folks often lose a considerable amount of their discipline when they enter the civilian working world. If you have the discipline to work out every day or to get up and go to work, then you have the discipline to find a new job and find it quickly.

Look Everywhere

The discipline required to find a good job starts with looking diligently for the right employment opportunity. You have to look continuously, and when I say continuously, I mean during every free minute that you have.

Finding that perfect job means spending part of your lunch hour at the library doing research into the types of employers that are most likely to hire someone with your background and skill set. It also means spending a minimum of one hour a night surfing job boards. And that is just the beginning.
Once you have disciplined yourself enough to spend all your free time looking for new employment, you can begin to divide your job search time into specific tasks. One important aspect of looking for work is to make new contacts. One way to do this is by sending your resume to placement agencies that work with people in your industry and letting them know the type of position you are seeking.

Networking and Beyond

Never underestimate the power of networking: Nearly half of all jobseekers get their jobs through referrals. Begin by networking with your friends and family for ideas and inspirations. Then extend your network to include those acquaintances whose spouse might work for a good company, or that person you met at church who works for a company that might be hiring. No matter what the source, you need to take advantage of any contacts you may have.
Another element of a disciplined job search is looking at all possible sources for a job. This might include multiple job boards, several newspapers, and many different company websites. It never hurts to send a resume to a company that is not hiring, because they will generally keep your resume on file for six months or more.
Finally, it’s worth your time to browse the phone book and Internet, calling places where you might like to work. I have actually gotten a job while the market was terrible by blindly calling software companies to see if they needed help.

Stay Positive and Focused

Disciplining yourself to find that perfect job also includes maintaining a positive attitude – even in the face of rejection. I have sent out hundreds of resumes without a response, but continued sending out my resume until I landed a job.
Unfortunately, looking for a job is not like going to McDonalds. You can’t just pull up to the drive-through and select your new job from the super value menu. To make this meal truly satisfying, you have to start from scratch and follow the recipe (advice from experts) as closely as possible.
If you approach getting a new job or advancing your career as one of those events in life that require perseverance and discipline, you will succeed where others fail. If you are able to dedicate any and all free time to finding that perfect job, your efforts will be rewarded. So, put your nose to the grindstone and accept the fact that finding a new job is going to take a lot of work, extra effort, and your utmost discipline.

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More Graduates, More Job Seekers

By Ira Boudway


It's graduation time at colleges around the world, and the job market is a little more welcoming to 21-year-olds than it was in the depths of the recession. Still, graduates are struggling to find their place in the workforce, with high rates of unemployment and underemployment in the industrialized world. Here's a sampling.
U.S.

A survey by the National Association of Colleges & Employers found that 24.4 percent of 2010 college graduates who applied for a job have one waiting after graduation, up from 19.7 percent last year.
Japan

According to a joint survey by the labor and education ministries, the employment rate for students who graduated in March is 91.8 percent, a 3.9 percentage point drop from last year and the lowest rate since 2000, when 91.1 percent of graduates were able to find work.
China

The Human Resources & Social Security Ministry hopes to place 70 percent of the graduating class by July and aims to push that figure to 80 percent withinthe year. Last year 68 percent of the graduating class was placed by July 2009 and 87 percent within the year.
Great Britain

A survey of 16,000 students by High Fliers Research found that of the 55 percent of final year students who have already applied for positions, 15 percent have received offers so far, slightly above last year's rate.

Boudway is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

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Maximize Your Internet Job Search

by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

We frequently hear from job-seekers who are frustrated with job-hunting on the Internet. (See our article Are the Major Job Boards All They're Cracked Up to Be? Observers and Users Speak Out). They have posted their resume on the major job boards or searched for and responded to job postings -- but have heard nothing back from employers.

Let's face it -- the sheer volume of resumes and job postings on the major job boards like Monster.com (about 35,000 resumes a day for Monster) make it hard for the individual job-seeker to get an employer's attention. When the Internet began to be widely used in the mid-1990s, it seemed as though it would be a magic bullet for job-hunting. And, while the Internet makes many aspects of job-hunting a lot easier than they used to be, it also means that employers are being inundated with responses to their job postings. A single job ad can attract thousands of applicants. Add to the mix a souring economy, and you have a lot of job-seekers who are fed up with Internet job-hunting. The aim of this article is to help you get the most out of job-searching on the 'Net and to make you aware of Internet job-search techniques you may not have known about.

* Try one-stop shopping. If you want to leave no stone unturned and use as many online job boards as possible, you can save a lot of time by going to a site with links to large numbers of job boards. Naturally, we recommend Quintessential Careers with links to almost 900 job sites. Most of these sites boast both job postings and the opportunity to post your resume. Well-known career columnist Joyce Lain Kennedy recommends another one-stop site, the AIRS Job Boards Directory, a directory to more than 3,000 online job boards. Quintessential Careers provides a description of each job board it links to. AIRS offers a handy chart describing the main features of its links -- and here we offer a big caution. AIRS is primarily directed at employers and recruiters, so when the AIRS chart says that you have to pay to use one of the listed sites, they mean that employers have to pay to have their job postings listed; job-seekers do not necessarily have to pay. One of our readers described a good response after using another one-stop site, WorkTree.com (registration required). If you would like a print resource to help you navigate your way through the job boards, the CareerXroads 2002 Directory to Job, Resume, and Career Management Sites on the Web provides reviews of 2,500 sites. Go to the CareerXroads site for more information.

* Take advantage of the extra features of the major job boards. Many job boards, for example have a "search agent" feature that enables you to enter your job criteria and have lists of jobs (or links to lists of jobs) e-mailed to you regularly. Our readers' and our own experience with these agents have yielded mixed reviews. One reader said that the agents that work best use Boolean search terms. Named after British mathematician George Boole, Boolean refers to the logical relationship among search terms, a relationship usually characterized by the words AND, OR, and NOT. In Boolean searching, an "and" operator between two words or other values (for example, "pear AND apple") means one is searching for documents containing both of the words or values, , not just one of them. An "or" operator between two words or other values (for example, "pear OR apple") means one is searching for documents containing either of the words. Similarly, Kim Komando, writer for the Arizona Republic, recommends a Windows-based software research tool, BullsEye, that can search the job boards for the kind of job you want. Portions of the proceeds from purchases of BullsEye before Dec. 31, 2001, are going toward Sept. 11 relief efforts.

* Consider the niche boards. Monster.com announced this year that it had acquired its 11 millionth resume. As Kennedy notes, "That kind of heavy volume is onereason why recruiters and job seekers are turning their attention to specialty boutiques rather than big-box marketplaces." These "specialty boutiques" are the online job boards that cater to one particular occupation, industry, or type of job-seeker (such as new college grads, MBA grads, minority candidates, or freelancers). You can access lots of these niche boards though this section of Quintessential Careers. Another excellent source of niche job listings is professional organizations. Not only do they often have job ads for your specific field, but professional organizations were ranked as the No. 1 networking venue in the survey I did for my book, A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market. Access many professional organizations through this section of Quintessential Careers.

* Think local. A recent survey showed that 28 percent of Internet job-seekers are willing to look at job listings that require relocation -- but 48 percent aren't. If you want to stay put and still obtain a new job, it makes sense to use geographically specific job boards. It also makes sense to use them if you do want to relocate because you can find openings in the city you plan to move to. Link to geographically specific job boards through this section of Quintessential Careers.

* Go retro. A few years ago, when I instructed my students to submit a want ad with their cover-letter assignment, almost all the ads submitted were from newspapers. By 2000, students submitted barely one newspaper want ad with the assignment. Virtually all the submitted ads were from the Internet. While newspaper want ads might be considered an old-fashioned venue for job-hunting, they are actually every bit as current as the Internet because most major newspapers carry their want ads online. Searching online want ads from newspapers is another variation on sticking with local sources for your Internet job search. Access many newspaper want ad sections through this section of Quintessential Careers.

* Go straight to the source. A number of experts recommend the career sections of company Web sites as a better choice than the big job boards because job postings are more likely to be current, the job-seeker can obtain specific instructions for how to apply online, and the overall company Web site provides a feel for the company's culture. Experts say the best way to approach a job search is to research and target the companies you most want to work for. Visiting company career sites is a great way to do so. Applying through a company job site lets the employer know that you were interested enough in the company to come to its Web site. Quoted in an article by Josh Kovner in the Hartford Courant, Michael Dunne of Banker's Life and Casualty said that direct applicants to his company's Web site "are the hungriest; they've sought us out. When we talk to them, they are definitely interested in the job." In a recent search to hire 10 salespeople, Dunne hired all six of those who had applied directly to his company's site, but only four out of 100 that had applied through Monster.com. A recruiter quoted by Stephanie Armour in USA Today went as far as to say that many employers don't want job-board candidates because "they think they're too lazy to do a real job search."

It's not just the big companies that have Web pages and career centers; many smaller companies do, too. Some of our readers have said that they are more likely to have their resume submissions at least acknowledged by employers when applying directly through the company's site than when they apply through the major job boards. For one-stop shopping at nearly 500 company career sites, visit The Quintessential Directory of Company Career Centers.

* Don't submit your resume indiscriminately. Adding to the overwhelming volume of resumes employers receive online is a plethora of resumes sent for jobs the job-seeker is not remotely qualified for. If you think you're covering all bases by responding to zillions of job postings, think again. You do yourself no favors by adding to the clutter that employers must weed through. Managing the information glut that results from the bombardment of resumes is a major headache for employers. Some job-seekers think that even if they're not qualified, the employer will realize how much they have to offer and match them up with other company job openings. Given the sheer volume of resumes and the speed of the screening process, the chances of such a match occurring are beyond remote, so don't waste the employer's time or your own.

Be sure also to pay close attention to employers'/recruiters' instructions for submitting your resume in response to their ads. Do they want you to send it via e-mail as a Word attachment? Via e-mail with your resume in text form in the body of the e-mail? Faxed? Mailed? Make sure you know how to do what the employer is asking. If you frequently send your resume as an e-mail attachment, experiment with sending it to several friends' computers to make sure it looks consistent and nicely formatted. Many employers ask you to include a position code so they can easily identify the job you're applying for. And be sure your resume contains those all-important keywords that will get your resume noticed.

* Publish your resume on your own Web page. Posting your own resume -- your way -- out there in cyberspace can be a terrific supplement to posting your resume -- their way -- on major and niche job boards. Since many employers now require resumes to be submitted in an unattractive and unadorned text/scannable format, publishing your resume on the Web gives employers 24/7 access to a more graphically pleasing version of your resume. Learn how to publish your resume on the Web here.

Rebecca M. Smith, author and guru of the eResumes & Resources Web site, points out that while many recruiters rely on the searchable databases they subscribe to, such as Monster.com or databases within their own companies, they "still also surf the Web for [Web-based] resumes." Smith notes that Web-based resumes can be tools for job-seekers to showcase successful projects. Go here for an excellent example of a Web-based portfolio. Note that the page's author, Alex Bischoff, offers employers the opportunity to download his resume in four formats: PDF (Portable Document Format), MS Word, HTML, and ASCII text.

Of course, if you want to publish your Web-based resume, you need to have Web space in which to publish it. Check with your Internet Service Provider. Many providers offer users space on their Web-servers. A number of portal sites on the Internet, such as Yahoo! Geocities, will host Web pages. For a search engine that enables you to find Web sites with free Web space hosting, go to FreeWebspace.Net. Once you've found a host for your Web page and resume, a key technique for getting employers to notice it is registering it with search engines. Read our article Resume Found: Keys to Successful Search Engine Registration.

* One other resume option is to use a resume distribution -- a resume "blasting" -- service. These services typically send your resume to a select group of recruiters and/or employers. Rather than the passive posting or publishing of your resume, these services specialize in sending your resume to recruiters and employers who subscribe to their services. You can get more information by checking out this section of Quintessential Careers.

* Don't spend all your job-hunting time in cyberspace. Integrate your Internet job search into a comprehensive job-search campaign that devotes plenty of time to traditional job-hunting techniques, such as cold-calling , developing a great resume and especially, networking. When quantifying the number of people who actually obtain their jobs through the Internet, one survey has placed the number as high as 20 percent, but most surveys say the number is between 4 and 6 percent, except for fields such as information technology, where the numbers are much higher. Almost half of job-seekers still get their jobs through networking (see chart), and one survey by the workplace consulting firm Drake Beam Morin indicated that 61 percent of executives found their positions through networking.

About five years ago, the conventional wisdom was that you should spend about 25 percent of your job-hunting time on Internet job-searching, and the rest on more conventional methods. Today, however, using the Internet, whether for job-searching or a myriad of other uses, is a valuable skill in itself, so Internet job-hunting need not be subject to arbitrary time limits. "Communicating online, including the ability to apply for jobs online, is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception as the Internet grows as a mainstay of business today," says Rebecca Smith. "In other words, the Internet is not just a job search tool, but a business communications tool. And to say that a job seeker should only spend 1/4 of his/her time on the Internet for job-seeking purposes is not realistic." Still, job-seekers should integrate the 'Net sensibly into their job-search campaigns. We've heard from job-seekers who spend eight or more hours a day sitting at their computers. Internet job-hunting can be effective, but you've also got to get out there and actually talk to people.

* Finally, don't hesitate to use the Internet for all the ancillary functions that enhance your job search, such as career assessment, company research, relocation, salary negotiation, and networking. For an easy tour of these functions, check out our tutorial about Jobhunting on the Internet.

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Making a Lateral Career Move: The Pros and Cons

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

You have been working hard, tracking your accomplishments, and promoting your personal brand within your organization -- all the right moves to obtaining that promotion you know you deserve. Instead of the promotion, however, your boss calls you in for a chat and tells you that you are being talked about for a lateral position that just opened up, a position with the same or similar title and pay grade but in a different part of the organization.

Or, perhaps it's you who has decided that for whatever reason you will not get promoted within your department -- but you love the organization -- so you are considering a lateral move with what you hope will be more opportunities down the line.

Whatever the reasons for considering a lateral move within your current organization, take a moment to read this article -- and then take much longer to weigh the pros and cons of applying for or accepting the lateral move. If you're feeling forced to take the lateral move, you might consider whether you are doing something wrong. Take our Quintessential Careers Quiz: Are You Sabotaging Your Career?

Finally, remember that some of the best run organizations understand the value of their employees and the importance of retaining the best workers within the organization -- even if that means shuffling some people into new positions, so do not assume that a lateral move is a knock against you. The key is understanding the organization's corporate culture and whether it does indeed value its employees.

Pros of a Lateral Move

* Promotion Potential. Organizational structures have become much flatter with the downsizing that many organizations have done in eliminating middle management positions. With this flatter structure comes fewer opportunities to be promoted, but making a lateral move and gaining more experience and more contacts within the organization should make you a much more attractive candidate for a promotion when a position opens in the future.

* Improving Job Security. A lateral move from an under-performing or soon-to-be-downsized department gives you a chance to not only stay with the company, but also show your value in a new department.

* Increased Marketability. Gaining new skills and broadening your capabilities and accomplishments can also make you a much more attractive candidate to headhunters and outside organizations with positions to fill. So, even if you are happy with your organization now, it never hurts to make yourself a more attractive job-seeker.

* Professional Development. If you have been in your current position for a number of years, you may have become so good at it that you know all there is to know -- perhaps even become a bit bored with it. By taking a lateral move and learning new skills, you may again become excited with the challenges you'll face.

* Fresh Faces. Taking a lateral move means working with new people and new teams, giving you the chance to make new friends and contacts -- especially important if you are tired of the people you currently work with, or simply like meeting new people.

* New Boss. Let's face it, not all bosses are made equal. Maybe it's time to switch to a new boss and show him/her what you're capable of doing. Your current boss might be just fine, but perhaps s/he just does not see you for your potential. Or perhaps it's simply the opportunity to learn from a new boss, especially if you feel you have maxed out with your current one.

* No Additional Responsibilities. While a lateral move will provide you with new challenges and learning opportunities, because it's at the same level as your current job, it will not tax you with more responsibilities. It's a good solution for someone seeking a new challenge, but not yet ready to tackle more responsibilities/pressures.

Cons of a Lateral Move

* Internal Perceptions. You'll want to analyze the corporate culture of the organization -- because in some organizations, folks making lateral moves are seen as the people who just don't have the skills to get promoted, and you'll certainly want to avoid that label.

* No Closer to Goal. If you're like many folks, you have a specific job title you want to reach in your career, and a lateral move takes you no closer to your goal.

* Same Salary. While a promotion carries with it more money (and perhaps other perks), a lateral move usually offers no financial incentives -- and in some cases, perhaps a lower salary.

* Further From Your Passion. While a lateral move might make the most sense in moving your career forward, it often takes you out of your field –- and away from your career passion. While not always a bad thing, many unhappy workers realize at some point they are unhappy because they are not working in what they love.

* Chance of Failure. In any job, there is a chance of failure, but if the lateral move is way outside your current comfort zone or into a department that has internal turmoil, there is always the chance that you could fail and lose your job.

Final Thoughts
For those in the corporate world, it's ingrained in our thinking from the beginning -- and from popular culture -- that climbing up the ladder is the direction of choice as well as a sign of success, but in today's business environment, that simply is no longer the case.

If you're contemplating a lateral move -- whether on your own or suggested to you -- schedule a talk with your current boss. It's possible your boss either does not know your ambitions or has a misconception about you or your situation. If you have a mentor within the organization, schedule a meeting with him/her as well.

A lateral move may make sense for you and your career, but before you make that final decision, be sure to do your research and make an informed decision.

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Keys to Passive Salary Negotiation For Job-Seekers Who Don't Like Negotiating

by Jack Chapman
Passive negotiating. So you're not one who enjoys conflict? In fact you avoid confrontation of any kind? You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or take advantage of anyone. You're a giver -- not so good at receiving? You're a helper, not so good at being helped?
Here's the two things you can do that will not create the dreaded possibility of tension and disapproval, but give you a chance to add dollars to your paychecks.
Some negotiations require action on your part. Documenting, comparing, estimating, promising, etc. Other things are more passive. you want the least amount of negotiating besides saying "OK" (which is simply no negotiation at all!) consider these two passive techniques.
1. Be quiet when it's time to be quiet. You can still be an agreeable person, just don't agree right away! Use "The Flinch." When it comes time -- and it will come time to do this no matter how nice you are -- to talk money, simply let them talk. You don't need to break in; don't need to counter offer; don't need to do anything proactive, or even reactive: just be quiet. When you hear their offer, repeat it and say "Hmmm." Think about it. You will probably get a raise on the spot.
2. Ask "What's the best you can do?" You don't need to argue, present your evidence, make a case, etc. You don't need to say "no" to the offer you received or re-negotiate terms or cover fine pits. You don't need to demand more money or even ask for more money. You won't push them outside their comfort zone. Simply say, "Wow, thanks for your offer. I look forward to starting. And I'm not a very good negotiator, so I prefer to leave this up to you -- I trust you'll tell me the truth. What's the best you can do?
There, that's not so hard, is it? Have fun! 

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