ShareThisYou're reading this column because you want to get hired, right? Of course right -- so listen up! Hiring authorities have spoken and they agree ... networking is the most valuable tool in the job seeker's arsenal.
The least effective process for finding a job: Job fairs.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the original outplacement company, released survey findings that asked human resource executives to rate the effectiveness of various job-search methods on a scale of 1 (least effective) to 5 (most effective). Here are the results:
Networking.......................................3.98
Social/professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter..................3.3
Internet job boards..............................3.0
The least effective methods, according to the poll, were:
Newspaper classified ads........................1.7
Job Fairs...........................................1.6
"Job fairs are particularly ineffective in recessions. They are heavily attended by job seekers and lightly attended by employers. Many of the employers that do attend are seeking very low-level workers, volunteers or unpaid sales representatives/franchisees who would have to be prodigious sellers to make a living wage," said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
While the Internet has the potential to be very useful for job seekers, Challenger said that it has become the primary tool for many, when it should be considered secondary to the traditional technique of networking and meeting prospective employers in person.
"Overuse of the Internet also threatens to prolong the hiring process by inundating employers with irrelevant resumes," said Challenger. "The more irrelevant resumes that hiring managers have to wade through to select a handful to bring in for interviews, the longer it takes to fill the position, and some HR executives complain that for every qualified candidate that comes in from the Internet, 10 -- 20 do not even come close to being a good fit."
As Challenger says, "The Internet has revolutionized job searching. It has certainly made it easier for someone in San Francisco to search for job openings in Miami." I say that Internet job searching creates global competition for the job seekers, while, at the same time, it is an incredible aid for researching prospective employers.
Challenger concluded by saying, "Job seekers must learn how to use all of the tools at their disposal, including networking, the Internet, newspapers, job fairs and even cold-calling employers."
(Marvin Walberg is a job search coach. Contact him at mwalberg(at)bellsouth.net, marvinwalberg.blogspot.com, or PO Box 43056, Birmingham, AL 35243.)
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