Networking Job Seekers
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Business Cards Make Good Sense for Job Seekers
Competition is tough today for job seekers who need every advantage to even get in the door for an interview. Once they get the interview, they need to have an edge that gets them noticed even more and makes them stand out in the crowd of people lining up for every potential job.
So - besides having the experience necessary and the credentials and qualifications that are required for the job, what can you do that is a little bit unique and that gets a potential employer to really focus on you? Most people think that having a good resume and a winning personality will land them the job if they get the interview - and in many cases that might be true. But sometimes a little bit of extra finesse can land you the job when an employer is deciding between two equally qualified candidates.
You could easily swing the vote in your favor with something as simple as a personal business card. A personal business card can have the usual contact information on the front of it with your name, address, e-mail, website, and phone numbers - as well as social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But you can dramatically change your card to include a mini resume on the reverse side listing your degrees, certifications and other unique characteristics that make you the most qualified for the job you are interviewing for. You can even personalize these cards for each interview to ensure that the information about your qualifications is perfectly suited for each company and position.
A personal job seeker business card shows the employer that you take yourself seriously and that you are very interested in their job. It shows you have initiative and it shows how innovative you are in your thinking. If you are looking for temporary positions or part-time work, then the mini resume on a card keeps it handy for an employer to call you when there is a need for your services.
On our main website, you will find cards suitable for any type of position with templates readily available to provide you with the best business cards to showcase your qualifications for a job interview and future work.
We also just launched the capability of ordering cards in quantities of 250. This gives you the opportunity to spend a little less, yet still have a professionally designed and printed card that will accurately reflect your professional desires.
About the Author
Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Jobseekers Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at [email protected] for Personal Business Cards Services. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.
How do I market a service online to high-end clients in a single metro area?
I run a training service (the URL is just the company name followed by .com) that's aimed at high-end job seekers with [expected] incomes in the 6 figures. The business is brand new, and I've been trying all the usual online marketing strategies for about a month now, with no apparent interest from prospective students. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Dave at Hired Fast Network, LLC
I've already been doing search engine marketing, so I don't see much reason to pay someone (who doesn't guarantee results) to do what I can do for free.
Some of the ways you can advertise your business are:
1. Post an article about your business on related blogs and get free visitors and back links
2. Submitting to directories
3. Free classifieds
4. Forums
Send an email with more information about your business to [email protected] for free help on finding new customers and increasing sales.
Networking Job Seekers
Social Networking for Job Seekers
Advice for job seekers looking for work online
You wonder what you are doing wrong but just can't seem to figure it out. The chances are that you are so desperate for work that you have become a robot and quickly zap your CV off to every job that you see adding no personality to your application. See it from the point of view of the recruiter. They post a job and receive a substantial amount of applicants. A lot of those applicants are going to have a great CV, application letter and their online resume is completely filled out and up to date. Now imagine receiving an application from someone who doesn't send their CV, a one lined sentence as their application or from what I have received before, simply –"job" – in the email body (No CV attached!). Would you hire that guy?
Job seeker competition has risen substantially over the last few years and at the same time there are still a lot of jobs out there. If you want to stay ahead of the pack and really want that job you will need to put in a lot more effort.
Due to social networking a new trend is starting where job seekers will reply to a wall post by submitting their email address or saying -"I'm interested"- in reply to a recruiter sharing a job post onto their group. Many times you will notice that these wall posts go uncommented by the original poster. If the job seeker can't click though on the job link how computer literate can they be?
When you submit your CV to a job board always ensure that you fill out as much as possible. The less you fill out the less likely you are to be found. Most job boards use some type of search functionality and the more you fill out, the bigger the chance you have of coming up in search results. Most job boards will require that you upload your CV and just because you are given this option it should not deter you from filling out your online application. Your CV attachment will be there for when a recruiter is satisfied with your online profile and they want to take it to the next step.
Having everything filled out beforehand saves a lot of time and frustration from emails being sent back and forth. Recruiters don't want and a lot of the times don't have time to be requesting CV's, requesting that you give more information on yourself etc. Remember that if you are one of 400 people that have applied to a job and even if qualified you will be dropped from the short list. You also stand a chance of not even receiving a confirmation that your application is being processed.
If you are specialised in your field or have picked up certain skills due to your job it will be worth mentioning them rather than giving them your general bullet list. If you have gained experience on certain machinery mention it in full and mention the make. You might be familiar with what you did but the person who screens your CV won't be. Recruiters won't have all the knowledge of your field and during screening your CV will be searched for particular mentions of skills. If you don't mention it in full, you will be skipped.
Specialized job board's can often have greater results than a big general one. For example, if you are specialized in oil and gas engineering your job search will bring you across a number of oil and gas job boards. Select a few and fill out your CV details as much as possible. Always have a look at the employers who are advertising on the website and especially which recruiters are posting adverts. Always read the job vacancy description. If a degree is required, no amount of desperation will get you the job. If you don't have a degree you won't get the position and probably not even a response to tell you that you don't have a degree.
To sum it up when applying to work remember the golden rule, "It's not about quantity it's about quality." You will then find you are called for more interviews and reduce your time spent on job hunting.
About the Author
This article was written by David Kimberley who manages an online oil and gas job board. The advice mentioned is so job seekers can be better informed about applying for work online.
The job board for interest is www.oilandgasrecruiting.com