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Only a decade ago, few people would have considered applying for a job online and few employers gave them much opportunity to try. But now it's a world of automated searches, keywords and résumé scanning. More than 10 million Canadians perused online job sites in September alone, according to comScore Media Metrix in Toronto. In the U.S. last year employers spent $5.9-billion (U.S.) to broadcast their job openings; that market is expected to hit $10-billion in just four years. So how to navigate your CV through the Web?
When it works
About three weeks ago, Toronto resident Laura Stacey headed home early from her job as an accounts receivable clerk for an electrical distribution company. For more than a year she had been trying to shake the feeling that she was working in the wrong industry. The passion just wasn't there.
So, on a lark, she fired up Workopolis.com and looked around. A job at G.A.P Adventures Inc., an adventure travel company in Toronto, was looking for someone with her background. Ms. Stacey immediately wrote a cover letter, uploaded her résumé, and sent it off. Within an hour she got a call from HR and within a week she was hired.
"The supervisor said she just had a good vibe from reading my résumé," Ms. Stacey says.
It's about key words
In fact, it was probably something more concrete than a feeling that got her moved to the head of the (virtual) pile. To get your résumé read by real people, you must first learn how to appease the machine.
Many companies, particularly large IT firms, insurance corporations and banks that receive thousands of electronic résumés a year and want to cut down on manual labour and paper, use software that sort through the bits and bytes to pick out relevant key words.
Here's how to jump the virtual queue right out of the starting gate: Include hot key words right at the top of your cover letter to include professional designations, educational background and, above all, pertinent skills. If the job posting says successful candidates should have an MBA and be a crackerjack mediator, make sure your résumé parrots that. Some firms search by former job titles as well. And again, specificity is key. For instance, if a company is trying to hire a senior marketing manager, a résumé or cover letter that clearly echoes this is more likely to get a look-see than the next person who says they "worked for five years in marketing and PR."
"Keywords and specifics that demonstrate your abilities, accomplishments and past experience are crucial to getting an employer's attention," says Remy Piazza, managing director for CareerBuilder.ca, an online recruitment site, based in Toronto.
Sarah Twomey, media relations specialist for the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario, hired a career coach a few years ago when she was looking for a job. She discovered just how much that rules of the game had changed. No longer were employers expecting a gorgeous looking résumé - now they wanted a shorter, more targeted document.
Think one quick sentence to say who you are, another that lists your skills that are most relevant to the job you're after, and finally one or two sentences that outline how you made a million bucks for your former employer. Then go into the specifics. And don't forget those key words.
"You're not writing a six-paragraph cover letter any more," she says. "Think about how people read online. They scan, so it has to be short, sweet and to the point."
And here's another tip she learned: In your résumé's footer, add pertinent keywords in a white font. No one sees it's there, but the computer's sort mechanism picks it up.
Keep it personal
The personal touch still has its place even in cyberspace, especially after you make the keyword cut. Julia Rosien, senior travel editor for Web company eMedia Interactive Inc., in Guelph, Ont., found her job online last year. She was an aggressive searcher, shooting out at least 50 résumés in three weeks. Her years of experience as an editor certainly helped her cause (she says about 25 per cent of the employers she targeted contacted her for more information) but so did the way she presented herself onscreen.
Her advice? Always add a few words in the comments field or in your cover letter that offer a window into your personality.
"My cover letters were a lot more chatty and I used down-to-earth language," she says. "I wanted to convey what kind of person I am, not just what my credentials are."
After you hit send
Applying for a job online does feel a tad soulless. You spend hours honing your résumé and cover letter and then press send, not knowing if it will ever be read. But Kristine Remedios, senior manager for experienced hire recruiting at KPMG LLP in Toronto, assures that electronic résumés get to the right people. As they're sent, they're flagged and delivered to the recruiter handling that job search. Applicants also receive an automatic reply stating their job application was received.
And if you make the cut, you can expect a real person to give you a call.
"We haven't replaced the human side with technology. A recruiter still spends time on the phone with candidates. They still interview face-to-face," she says. The difference is that instead of sifting through a stack of résumés looking for the right person for the right skill set, a computer takes the first kick at the can.
Many larger corporations, such as KPMG, Microsoft Inc. and Hewlett Packard (Canada) Co., make it even easier for its HR staff. It asks candidates to fill out a prescreening questionnaire that helps weed candidates out.
They have to, says Richard Ward, a recruiter and talent scout for Atrium Talent in Toronto. "As a recruiter, you get inundated. For whatever reason, people apply for the job even when they're not qualified. This is why companies hire recruiters - you have to filter through hundreds of résumés," he says.
That's what Patrick Sullivan, president of Workopolis.com in Toronto, says he hears. "The No. 1 complaint we hear from employers is it's too easy to apply for a job," he says.
But is it safe?
Security is obviously key when posting personal information online. Despite best efforts to install firewalls, encryption levels and other security measures, databases can still get hacked, or, as in the case of retail clothing giant Gap Inc., stolen.
In September, Gap announced that a laptop containing personal information from approximately 800,000 job searchers was stolen from the offices of a third-party vendor that managed job applicant data for the company. This news came on the heels of another breech at Monster.com in August in which 1.3 million members had their personal data exposed. Then there are the bogus companies that list jobs in order to gather data from unsuspecting candidates. They're out there, although obviously in the minority, Mr. Sullivan says.
Protect yourself from identity theft. Never include your social security number on your résumé and keep any other personal information you don't want others to see, personal.
Landing the job
A 2005 survey by Mintel International Group Ltd., discovered that 43 per cent of respondents had some success in their online job searches, either by scheduling an interview or being hired for a full- or part-time job.
At KPMG, online recruiting is the firm's No. 1 hiring tool, Ms. Remedios says. A full 36 per cent of the people it hires come from online postings. Referrals are a distant second at 20 per cent.
"We hire online because it works," she says.
Ultimately, the core of employee recruitment is still the same as it's always been: If all goes well, the best candidate gets the job.
Ms. Twomey says although her career coach helped her perfect and update her résumé, it was her gumption that got her employed in the end. Once she decided to leave a career in bilingual IT support for PR, she started volunteering, networking and getting involved in her professional association. By the time she started making the rounds with her résumé, people knew her name.
"Because of that, I was able to get my name at the top of those heaps," she says.
