Trends in responding to on-line employment postings

Back in the olden days (5 years ago or so), the common way to reply to jobs on career Web sites was to e-mail employers your resume as the main initial contact method. Nowadays a lot of employers have integrated applications on their Web site and require job seekers to complete an on-line form at their Web site. The Plus side of this approach 1. Employers get a more detailed description of who you are based on their hiring criteria. 2. You are available in their database for future reference in the event you don't precisely match the skill set of their current openings. 3. You get a better feel of your qualifications based on the information requested in the forms. 4. By using Web based forms vs. e-mails, recruiter e-mail boxes are not inundated with resumes. Many of which are not related to current openings. The Problems 1. All employer Web sites are different. 2. A lot of employer Web site career sections are poorly designed and/or don't function correctly. Hint: Don't even think about using Netscape Navigator or Firefox when visiting employer Web sites. 3. It can be frustrating to navigate them and it takes a lot of time to submit your information. 4. Some ask for Social Security Numbers! Never enter your social security number via the Internet. Check out our blog for reasons why. 5. Often times communication with you are very limited and often not even generated by a human (automatic standard e-mail replies come to mind). Astute employment advertising Web sites are trying to get job seekers to the employer Web site form directly by hunting down the links to the employer application forms. This saves you a lot of effort traversing through lots of the employer Web site links and layers in order to respond to the job of interest. Possibly, as the labor market continues to tighten up, employers will seriously think about designing their career sections to save job seekers time when applying for jobs. Sam Morse Client Services Manager Trumor Inc. Family of Businesses including ... MinnesotaJobs.com http://DiversityMinnesota.com mailto:sam@Trumor.net 763.784.9393 X201 (V) 763.784.1090 (F) How about sponsoring our scholarship fund? More info at