Advice for Online Job Search
The Problem with Indeed and Ziprecruiter
Here’s how most people look for work these days: they scroll through Indeed or Ziprecriuter, apply for promising roles, and then keep scrolling endlessly. Most of the time, they never hear back. There is a better way to do your online job search.
The problem with this technique is that most jobs posted online are not actually posted on these platforms. It costs companies hundreds or thousands of dollars to advertise jobs on these platforms. Companies, just like you or me, want to save money. In fact, many companies never or rarely advertise their jobs on the prominent job boards such as Indeed and Ziprecruiter.
Also, there’s typically a delay between when a job is posted, when an applicant sees it, and when their resume appears in the recruiter’s applicant tracking system. During this delay, they could have already found someone for the role.
Looking for jobs online–done right!
If you see a promising role on Indeed or Ziprecruiter, by all means apply for it. However, you should also follow these steps.
- Look up the company online and visit their job board directly. See if you’d want to work for them.
- Bookmark this page into a job search folder in your browser.
- Open the page once a week to look for roles.
- Apply for jobs that are posted–you’re probably one of the first people to do so!
Use this for Networking
Additionally, use this list of companies to add connections on LinkedIn to target people who are
- Lateral connections (people who are in similar roles to the one you want)
- Recruiters (who will often post the job on LinkedIn and are routinely scanning their connections for job fits)
- Hiring managers (the ones who might ultimately be offering you a job)
Why this works
While this is more work, it is a much more effective technique because of three main reasons:
- Most jobs are not posted on the major job boards due to cost. You see more jobs than what Indeed presents.
- You are competing with less people since most job seekers don’t take this step.
- It’s estimated that 75% of all jobs are never posted online at all. These are filled through networking.
One more thing…
It’s important to note that some companies never post their jobs on due to the cost. So how do you find them?
There’s a lot of great smaller, local job boards out there they might still use. Locally, you can check out WorkinTexas and LaunchPad Job Board for some examples.
Additionally, I recommend the old-fashioned approach to job seeking. Drive around your city (or explore with Google Maps), take notes of all the companies you’ve never heard of. Then look them up online later.
Are you looking for work?
If so, we’re hiring! Don’t go to Indeed, go directly to our job page. Don’t forget to bookmark it and check back regularly for positions.
