The post 10 Hacks for Using Indeed.com for Your Job Search appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Whether you’ve been looking for a new job for five minutes or five months, you have one thing in common with every other job seeker on the planet: You’ve visited Indeed.com at least once.Love it or hate it, Indeed is one of the most popular search engines for job seekers. It’s a powerful search engine with the muscle, intelligence and flexibility to help you find just about every open position out there — which can also be overwhelming and problematic, leaving you exactly where you started: Still wanting a new job, but lost as to how to find the right opportunities.
Indeed’s search results will vary from day to day or even hour to hour as new jobs open and others close. The job that was open yesterday morning may not be listed today. Of course, the reverse is also true — you found nothing in your search yesterday, but today could be your lucky day because an employer (or several of them) posted new jobs that are just up your alley.
If you don’t find that perfect-fit job today, try again later today, tomorrow, next week or next month. You can also set up an Indeed “Job Alert,” to be notified via email as soon as positions that meet your selection criteria are posted.
Like any other search engine, there’s an art to searching Indeed. (Click here to tweet this quote.)
Take a search for an office manager position. Type those two words into the search bar, and you’ll get jobs that contain both the words “office” and “manager” in no particular order. Some postings may have those words side-by-side or in two different places. The “manager” and “office” aspects of the job could be completely unrelated to each other.
So, results might include jobs like “Product Support Front Line Manager, New York office” or “Bookkeeper/Office Manager.” You might also get results that include the words “office” and “manager” just about anywhere in the job description.
This simple search is best used when you want to find jobs or employers requiring a specific degree (like BS or MBA), a professional designation (like CPA), a certification (like PMP) or something similarly specific that contains only one distinct word. Then the results could be useful to you regardless of where the term appeared, in the job title or in the description.
These search shortcuts will help you cut through the noise find exactly the positions you’re looking for. All these hacks apply only to Indeed.com’s “what” search box. Add your preferred location to the “where” box, or leave “where” empty to see what’s available across the country.
To tell Indeed to search a specific phrase, enclose the words in quotation marks.
You can also search for specific job titles on Indeed. Pretty simply, too. Just add the word “title” followed by a colon: What -title: accountant
Indeed will then search only the titles of postings. Remove the title:, and the search engine will also look for those words in both the job title and the body of the job description.
Since there are so many different types of accountants, ask Indeed to find exactly the ones you want. For this example, let’s use tax accountant.
If the job title is a phrase, like tax accountant, combine Hack # 1 and Hack # 2 to be more specific: What -title: “tax accountant”
In this case, you’re telling Indeed you want to only see jobs with titles that include the words “tax accountant.”
Like specifying the job titles you want, you can also tell Indeed to find your target employers. Similar to the way you tell Indeed to find specific job titles for you, have Indeed search for jobs with a specific employer by typing in the company name.
For example, let’s say you want to work for XYZ Company. You’re curious about what job openings they have right now. To find open jobs at XYZ Company, use this query: What – company: “XYZ Company”
Combine Hack # 3 and Hack # 4 to find specific job titles with a target employer. So, if you wanted to be a tax accountant for XYZ Company, your query would look like this. What -title: “tax accountant” company: “XYZ Company.”
Maybe you’re trying to figure out which jobs are best for you by exploring job titles used to describe people who have similar skills. Or maybe you just want to see jobs that require a specific skill set you have or are considering acquiring.
In this example, we’ll assume you’re curious which employers need people with social media skills. So, you would do this search: What - “social media”
You know exactly the job you want, and you’re looking for that job with a specific skill set included. So, if you wanted to find executive assistant jobs in the real estate industry, you would combine a job title search with a keyword search.
That search would look like this: What -title: “executive assistant” “real estate”
Say you want an administrative assistant job, but you don’t want to be the receptionist, too.
To find the admin assistant jobs that exclude those with receptionist duties in the descriptions, your search would look like this: What – title: “administrative assistant” -receptionist
In this example, you’ve decided you want that administrative assistant job (without receptionist duties) at our mythical XYZ Company. Your search would look like this: What -title: “administrative assistant” -receptionist company: “Example Company”
To refine your search results even more, try Indeed’s Advanced Job Search. You can specify estimated salary ranges, job type (full-time, part-time, contract, internship or temporary), and other interesting options.
Susan P. Joyce is an online job search expert observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Susan is editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org and WorkCoachCafe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg for more job search tips.
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The post 10 Hacks for Using Indeed.com for Your Job Search appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/07/30/10-hacks-using-indeed-com-job-search/feed/ 0The post How to Use Google+ to Land Your Next Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Google+ is the second largest social network with 500,000,000+ members, but it’s wrongly ignored by many job seekers. Google+ feeds Google, and Google is where employers look for qualified job candidates.Unlike LinkedIn or Facebook, any recruiter or employer can find your profile and read what you’ve posted there. You don’t need to be connected with anyone for them to see your complete profile, so having a solid Google+ profile gives you a more powerful and complete online presence, especially since Google breaks up your about page into several boxes — or categories — of content about you.
Using your LinkedIn profile and resume content, expand on your greatness. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Here are four steps to do that.
Google provides both the space and the ability to link to other web pages. Connect to your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, blog, employer’s website or even your favorite posts on Brazen.
The Google+ about page provides an amazing amount of virtual real estate. Writing in first person, create short but coherent paragraphs and short bulleted lists. These make your page easy for someone to skim as they look down their screen — particularly if the screen is on a smart phone.
Leverage the formatting tools Google+ provides. You can make text bold or italicized and include bulleted and numbered lists, too. Don’t just create a large paragraph that lists every keyword that could be applied to you. Keywords are important; lists of keywords are useless.
This is Google, after all. Feed it keywords that’ll help your profile be found in Google searches. Recruiters usually know what they want, and they search using the keywords that’ll bring them the best results.
Job titles provide important keywords employers and recruiters use to search for people. Use the most appropriate job title for the job you have if you’re employed or for the job you want next if you’re unemployed. You can always change your mind and your profile later, but being vague or generalized won’t help.
Use whatever’s appropriate for your career goals. If you aren’t sure what to use, discover what’s best. Because the titles of the same job can differ from industry to industry and even employer to employer, search through Indeed.com’s collection of job postings to see what’s being used.
If more than one job title is used to describe the job you want, include the job titles you see most often. Plug the terms into Indeed’s Job Trends page to see which are used most often, and put the most frequently used terms in your tagline, like this: Investment sales assistant/sales associate.
Skills also provide useful keywords. Again, be as specific as you can. Focus on skills you have that employers seem to be searching for.
Match the language most employers use to describe a skill. For example, if “skill with Microsoft Office” is typically required in their job postings — and you have that skill — be sure to include the words “Microsoft Office” in your about page. Also include the names of the Microsoft products you can use, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. This ensures the right keywords are available.
Include appropriate acronyms and explain what they mean. An employer may search on either the acronym or the term. Explaining the acronym adds more information about you, particularly when the acronym could have more than one meaning. For example, AIDS could be the acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Aircraft Integrated Data System — two very different things representing different skills, experiences and industries.
Pay close attention to the contents of your Google+ tagline at the top of the story box. That tagline is often included in a Google search result that links to your Google+ profile. Your tagline is also what Google shows people in the pop-up window when someone runs a mouse over your profile picture. It should create interest and encourage people to click through to see the rest of your profile.
Your Google+ tagline defines your personal brand. Don’t describe yourself with useless, generic terms like “experienced business professional” or “new college graduate.” General terms like those aren’t interesting or memorable and are seldom — if ever — used by a recruiter searching for qualified applicants. And those terms certainly aren’t distinctive personal brands.
Put Google+ to work for you, and you’ll have a stronger presence on the web that attracts recruiters and potential employers. You don’t have to chase the opportunities if they track you down first.
Susan P. Joyce is a visiting scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the chief technology writer, editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org and WorkCoachCafe.com. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+.
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The post How to Use Google+ to Land Your Next Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/05/09/use-google-land-next-job/feed/ 6The post 7 Online Resources That Will Help You Prepare for Your Next Job Interview appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> You’ve identified your target employers, applied for your dream jobs and now you’re getting ready to knock their socks off in the interviews. Your performance in those interviews not only shows what a smart and thorough employee you would be; it also demonstrates your interest in each specific company.Use these online resources to prepare for your interviews and blow away your competition:
For companies that have publicly traded stock, AnnualReports.com is a free repository of thousands of annual reports (both the boring Form 10K version in HTML and the prettier PDF version which is distributed to stockholders and potential investors). Search by company name to find the annual report for your target employer.
These reports are gold mines of information, but keep in mind they’re from the company’s perspective. In addition to any essential financial information, you’ll typically find a letter to investors from the CEO, descriptions of products and services, major announcements, sometimes descriptions of the organizational structure (divisions or subsidiaries) and even plans for the future.
If your target employer is not a publicly traded company (in other words, it’s private), finding good information like detailed financial reports and lists of corporate officers can be challenging. And many large employers like Bechtel, Chrysler, Publix Super Markets and PricewaterhouseCoopers are private.
While Hoovers offers minimal information—like headquarters location, subsidiaries and competitors—for free, it also sells more detailed company and industry reports for $69-$300.
Wikipedia can be an excellent source of information on a wide variety of employers from public to private. Since content is compiled and edited by volunteers, the information validity can sometimes be a bit suspect, but in general, Wikipedia can be a helpful source.
You might also check citations in the footnotes to find sources that are typically reliable, leading to additional information.
Surprisingly, Yelp can be a good source of information for many employers, not just restaurants, and particularly for smaller employers.
Yelp is a customer review site that allows businesses being reviewed to present their own information if they choose. You won’t find many financial details, but you might discover insightful information in the customer reviews that you won’t find elsewhere (like problems you might very carefully mention in an interview that you could help the company solve).
Major research and consulting firms like McKinsey, Deloitte, Forrester, Gartner, BC and Accenture sometimes make reports available on their websites with executive summaries that could offer free snippets of insight. If you have deep pockets and great ambitions, purchasing an industry or sector report that covers several potential employers could be worth the price and save you the hassle of doing the research yourself.
For example, if you’re looking for work in the pharmaceutical industry, McKinsey offers a free 10-page report on the future of pharmaceutical R&D, which includes insight on the top players in that arena.
Both Glassdoor and the next site on our list, CareerBliss, depend on current and former employees accurately reporting their experiences and salaries with the promise of anonymity. So it’s best to take it all with a grain of salt and be cautious, particularly when it comes to the salary data. Still, these sites can provide useful insight into the process and culture of a given employer.
Since salaries in most companies are based on a mix of experience, education and/or certifications, location and other factors, the salary data you view may not really be a match for you. Some “salary” data will also include commissions, bonuses, profit sharing and other forms of compensation that are not specifically mentioned. So don’t be surprised if the salary you’re offered differs substantially from what these sites report.
If your target employer is included on Glassdoor (and more than 250,000 companies are), you can easily find employee reviews and salaries by job title. You can also check out information about job interviews reported by individuals, including their experiences with the application process, number of interviews and interviewers and an example interview question.
As a bonus, if you sign in with your Facebook account, Glassdoor will show you which of your friends work at your target companies, which could be the warm connection you need to land an interview.
CareerBliss offers information via both company reviews and average salary information by company. It’s similar to Glassdoor, but without the requirement to register before you access the information.
As you research on these sites, write down any questions that occur to you. Then, before the interview, choose the best questions to ask during the interviews, those that demonstrate you’ve done your research and will also draw out responses important to your decision.
Your research online will not only demonstrate your genuine interest to interviewers; it will also help you decide whether you really want to work for that employer.
Susan P. Joyce, a two-time layoff “graduate,” has been studying and writing about online job searching since 1994. She has been the editor of Job-Hunt.org since 1998 and WorkCoachCafe.com since 2011 after several years working in HR and high tech.
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