Robert Russell

Search this site

Navigation

Jobhunting Notes

I first started building these notes to help some employees I could no longer keep, and we've kept updating this over the years; I hope you find these methods as useful as others have. 
  1. If you're employed, then your jobhunt should focus on your dream job, don't quit something stable for more of the same.  If you're unemployed, your focus should be to get back in the game before levelling up.  http://lifehacker.com/5781477/ has some good advice for the recently unemployed, as does http://liveyourlegend.net/what-to-do-when-you-get-fired-or-quit-purpose-finding-101/ and http://www.bonvivantonline.com/2011/11/15/what-to-do-after-getting-fired/
  2. Monster.com and Workopolis.com will both rank your resume higher in the search results if it has been recently updated.  I recommend updating your resumes on those sites every 1-2 days, or at least every Sunday afternoon, so that you're always the first one recruiters see at the top of their search results.  Also, the more information you can provide them about your skills, the more likely you are to come up in search results -- don't just upload your Word Doc and expect that to be it.  Review the below links for resume writing tips -- the point is to get the interview.  The big keyword-optimized resume you upload to workopolis and the polished printable resume you carry in to an interview will be very different -- and you may want to have other versions for other situations as well.  Also hit up hotjobs.yahoo.com and www.careerbuilder.com and www.higherbracket.ca and www.bluesteps.com
  3. http://www.linkedin.com is a very useful professional networking tool.  I recommend filling out as much information in it as possible, and using it to search for past classmates and colleagues that may be useful in your search.  Also spend some time learning how it can be used to jobhunt. Sign up and complete your profile, then look for coworkers to link with.  Do this before you exit your current role.  (Some advice here: http://www.labnol.org/internet/linkedin-tips-for-job-seekers/7249/ and here: http://rehaul.com/how-to-captivate-and-impress-with-your-linkedin-profile)  Read the forums, and answer people's questions -- good answers build karma that makes you more attractive to recruiters.
  4. Two commercial services exist to get you prompt access to job postings by finding all the postings across thousands of sites and aggregating them together -- both of these are services I've used and highly recommend: http://www.careeraim.com/ maintains a database of all the jobs they find in a web-searchable database, and http://www.petersnewjobs.com/toronto_freetrial.htm is a service (Toronto and Ottawa) that provides you with a daily mail about newly available open positions.  I recommend trying out at least the PNJ free trial for two weeks.  Two free and lower-quality alternatives are described at http://www.cheezhead.com/2009/05/28/jc-find-a-job-without-having-to-look/ and http://newjoblist.com/
  5. Think about other professionals that you know, and consider dropping them a note to let them know that you're persuing new opportunities.  When you meet with people, you won't always have a resume to give them.  Create a webpage with an easy-to-remember URL, so that you can just give them the URL.  They can pass this URL around to their own contacts by instant messenger quite easily.  Make sure that your webpage contains your resume, contact information, a link to your LinkedIn profile, etc.  Refer to http://sites.google.com/site/RobertRussell for an example.  I use Google Sites for free hosting, refer to their getting started guide if you'd like to be as cool as I am.  The lazy way to get a link is to get one like http://ca.linkedin.com/in/robertrussell from LinkedIn -- get started at https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/87.
  6. Come up with a daily checklist of activities to do at a specific time every day, and be disciplined.  This will help you from starting to neglect the more boring parts of a jobhunt.  Every day, check the PNJ mailout (#4 above) and upload "new" resumes to monster/workopolis (see #2 above).  Check all your jobsearch RSS feeds (below) and get some sunshine.  Every week, review your plan and checklist -- re-read this document and some of the below links, you'll find something new every time.
  7. Karma is real.  Helping other people find work is a great way to stay in the conversations.  I keep a list of friends/coworkers looking for work at http://sites.google.com/site/robertrussell/other-jobhunters and I give that list to any recruiters calling me with opportunities that don't quite fit me.  If I know you, and you're following all the other advice on here, let me know what URL to put on the list for you!
  8. For crying out loud, stop using your hotmail address for jobhunting.  http://lifehacker.com/5447335/know-what-your-email-address-says-about-you -- and if you're worried about losing contact with people that know you by your hotmail address, that's not really an issue at all: http://www.howtogeek.com/80104/how-to-send-and-receive-hotmail-from-your-gmail-account-2/ -- if you'd like your own domain for email and website, I recommend the "DNS Hosting" package from https://web.easydns.com/Pricing/ to direct web users to your LinkedIn profile, and emails to your gmail account.
     
Updating = Intent … probably.
Additional reading - Resumes:
Additional reading - Interviewing:
Simple Interview Advice Additional reading - Jobhunting:

Additional reading - LinkedIn:

Jobhunting by RSS:
Reminder - You are not your audience