Trawling through hundreds of job search websites can take an age and, well, is quite boring. Once you find the ideal position to apply for, 3,000 other applicants have applied for it, too. No wonder people become depressed when job searching.
Or, you find the job you really want, and it’s already gone. So many job hunters get annoyed when, after weeks of job searching, they find the ideal vacancy only to learn they’ve missed the deadline by one day—even though they’ve been job searching every day for two weeks! (“Arghh! How did I miss this one?”)
There’s an Easier Way!
There are so many job search websites out there, which makes it easy for you to miss your ideal job opportunity. You need to learn how to source the vacancies from your job sector so you never again have to miss a golden opportunity.
-
What if you could be alerted when employers from your job sector are starting a new recruitment campaign?
-
What if you could find out about forthcoming vacancies before anyone else?
-
What if you could, in advance, discover which businesses from your job sector will be increasing their staff levels due to winning new contracts or company expansions?
FACT: companies who receive hundreds of applications will close down their vacancy before the stated close date, which means knowing about new vacancies before they go live will increase your rate of interview offers.
The Google Alert Strategy
A simple job search strategy that is often underused and unknown is the “Google Alert Strategy.” Today, I will teach you this five-step strategy for using Google Alerts to get ahead of the job searching crowd.
The Google Alert Strategy can be used alongside other job search techniques, but the advantage of the Google Alert Strategy is that following a five-minute investment of time, you can sit back, relax and wait for businesses to notify you about their imminent recruitment campaigns.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Set Up the Alert
First you need to set up a Google Alert. To do this, click http://www.google.com/alerts, then sign in with your e-mail account. (You don’t need to have a Gmail account for this.)
Let’s go through the fields after “Search Query” first, as we’ll come back to this in Step 2:
Result Type: You can choose to receive alerts for news, blogs, videos, discussions and even books. For more results, leave the result type on the default “everything.”
How Often: Choices included “as it happens,” “once a day” or “once a week.” I recommend “as it happens” or “once a day” because, as you will learn, “once a week” might result in your missing some fantastic opportunities.
How Many: Two choices here: “best results” or “all results.” You will need to test this for your job sector, but in most cases, “all results” will fill your alerts with a load of rubbish. Choose “only the best results.”
Email: Enter your email address. (Again, this does not have to be a Gmail address.)
This is the hard part done!
Step 2: Expand Your Search Terms
Next, you need to set up the alerts. Think about the job role and job sector you’re interested in. As an example, you may be a chef looking to work in a hotel. So, when new hotels are recruiting chefs, you need to know so you can get you application in first.
Whatever your industry is, you need to think about the terms your potential bosses will use when publishing blog posts, news articles and press releases. Remember: all companies advertise vacancies online; large organizations will release press releases when opening new premises or when on a recruitment drive; and online news websites will write articles on companies winning new contracts, recruitment drives, sector information and, well, anything related to your job sector.
An example alert you will want to set up includes:
“New industry job”: For example, “new chef job” means that every time a company advertises a chef job online, you’ll get an alert with these vacancies in your inbox:
You can be more specific by adding your location to the alert. This may decrease the amount of alerts you receive, but all of your alerts should be relevant to you:
Think about the terms your position could be referred to as—for example, “chef” or “cook” or “caterer”—and add separate alerts for each term, as each term may result in new opportunities:
Step 3: Brainstorm Recruitment Factors
Next, you need to think outside the box. What will your sector’s employers release to the media that will allow you to find new vacancies before anyone else?
If you work in the construction sector, you may set up alerts for “construction contract won.” The science sector employee may set an alert up for “science funding awarded.” The retail employee may set an alert for “new retail outlet opening.” You need to think about the factors that makes your sector increase recruitment and then set up alerts for these terms.
For the chef applicant, you may set up “new restaurant opening”:
But, you can see that by adding a new similar term (“restaurant expansion”), you will receive new alerts with new results. The more alerts you set up, the more results you will find:
A great term to use for all sectors is “<inset your industry here> recruitment.” (For instance, “restaurant recruitment.”) Again, new results that haven’t been recorded in the other alerts you’ve set up will now show up in this new alert:
Step 4: Select the Best Results
Scanning through the alerts you receive, you can quickly select alerts that are of interest and disregard those that aren’t relevant.
For the alerts that capture your interest, click the link to open up the webpage. For job adverts, you simply apply as normal. But what’s key here is that you will receive news articles and press releases for companies that will be recruiting in the next few months.
With this key information, you can plan your time so that you can customize your application for these positions and, as soon as the vacancy comes live, you can apply. (An often overlooked fact is that the first application received is often read in more detail than later applications.)
You can also be sneaky and apply speculatively to companies you know will be looking for talent in the future.
Step 5: Apply!
Target your application utilizing this research and apply. Good luck!
Freebie for Career Attraction Readers Only
For more advice on job searching strategies, we’re giving all Career Attraction readers a free copy of The Secrets of Employment by Employment King. This job searching e-book normally retails for £6.99.
Chris Delaney is a career coach, founder of Employment King and author of The 73 Rules for Influencing the Interview using Psychology, NLP and Hypnotic Persuasion Techniques. Chris is a leading career coach from the UK, with over 10 years’ experience specializing in career coaching, employee motivation and specialist interview techniques. Connect with Chris and Employment King on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter or at info@employmentking.co.uk.
Image: photobucket
