4 Internet Job Search Mistakes to Avoid

The Internet is the most powerful employment tool on earth. Hands down.

With the Web, you can access millions of job openings on thousands of sites. With email, you can quickly contact employers and ask for interviews.

Yet, if used incorrectly, the Internet can actually prevent you from being as productive as possible in your search for work.

How? Why?

Here are four mistakes that commonly befall job seekers using the Internet. Avoid them, and get hired faster.

1) Don't Email Your Resume Wrong

I've written before (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1416/4371900.html) on how to create a text version of your resume for emailing to employers. Because not everybody has Word or WordPerfect, the only way to be sure employers can read your resume is to email them a version in plain old ASCII text.

Make sure the resume you email looks good upon arrival, with no funny line breaks or garbage in the text. How? Use yourself and at least two friends as guinea pigs.

It's easy. Practice formatting and emailing your resume to yourself and others. Open the email. How does your resume look? Good? Good. Garbage? Reformat and repeat until your resume goes through cleanly every time.

2) Don't Forget The Email Cover Letter

When emailing your resume to employers, don't dash off email cover letter as an afterthought or, worse, fail to include one. Treat email as you would postal mail -- always email a solid cover letter with your resume.

Your cover letter has many functions. Chief among them are telling the reader what job you're applying for, where you learned of the job, and your specific qualifications for doing it.

And don't get sloppy with tone or punctuation in email cover letters. You're not banging out an instant text message to buddies. You're writing a letter to the person you want to work for. There's a difference.

3) Don't Be Passive

It's easy to sit back and wait for postings to appear on the big job sites, like Monster. But if you confine yourself to this passive technique, you're missing out.

That's because most jobs are filled by employers before they're ever advertised online or in the newspaper. By some accounts, this figure is as high as 80%. So it pays to be proactive -- use the Internet to get into the heads of hiring managers before they pay for a job posting online.

An easy way to do this is to use a networking Web site, such as Linkedin.com or Ryze.com. At Linkedin.com, for example, you can search profiles of 1,214,000 registered users (as of this writing) to find people who went to your school, have the same hobbies, live near you, etc. You can also find out where these people work -- and this is critical.

Because, once you find and contact someone who shares an affinity with you, and works in the company or industry you want to work in, you can make valuable connections that lead to interviews and job offers.

Tip: never approach networking as a one-way street. You become road-kill and get ignored that way. Instead, give back to the people you meet, online or off, before expecting them to favor you with job leads. You must prime the pump before you get anything out.

4) Don't Forget Who Really Hires

Throughout history, there is no record of any person ever being hired by a computer. It's people who hire people. Yet, some folks spend days or weeks searching for jobs online without ever meeting a hiring authority face to face.

This is a mistake that happens when you confuse process with results.

Using the Internet to find a job is a process. The results you want are a job. At some point, you have to get off the Internet, get off your duff, and go shake hands with live humans. Never lose sight of this.

That's what it all boils down to, doesn't it? To get hired, you have to meet and impress a living, breathing employer.

Go do it!

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1996, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, CBS Radio, and many others.

CAREER TOPICS

Free Resume Examples: Untold Wealth In 10 Minutes!
Doesn't every job search start with Google?Way back in another lifetime, I was looking for a job after one of my startups failed. Conveniently, everything went to pot in early 2000.

Resume Success Factors--What Exactly Is A Resume Anyway?
You know you're good..

Smokin' Up a Storm: Clothing, Smokers, and the Job Interview
You're nervous. You're so nervous that you crave a smoke.

The Five Most Common - And Most Avoidable - Résumé Errors
Writing an effective résumé can certainly be challenging. There are numerous rules and none of them apply 100% of the time.

How To Start Your Own House Cleaning Business
If you are thinking about starting your own house cleaning business, begin by evaluating your present circumstances. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but how you reply will affect what you do.

Job Tips For The Frustrated Job Seeker
There is nothing more frustrating and depressing when you are out of work and trying to find a job and your job search is going no where. Don't feel bad, you are not alone and there is a good reason why searching for a new job can be so difficult.

Hospital Staff at Great Risk of Attack and Injury Whilst at Work
There are millions of people working extremely hard every day in the UK to ensure that the public are healthy and recover from illness or accidents. Countless medical staff around the country study hard to become doctors and nurses and then work long hours and endure stressful situations in order to save the lives of men women and children every day.

Planning Your Successful Career: 15 Ideas
"Doing a good job is one of the most important ways to move up the ladder", says Dr. Don Bagin, Professor of Communications at Glassbro State College.

If Youre Fired, Will Past Employers Keep Your Secret?
Despite what some job seekers think, it is not illegal for former employers to tell reference checkers that you were fired. They can say anything they want as long as it's true.

Ten Resume Writing Tips You Can't Live Without
For some job opening, employers receive hundreds and even thousands of resumes. When you are looking for a job, how can you best promote yourself? How can you convince a prospective employer to pick-up the phone and call you for an interview?Sought-after career coach and author of the critically-acclaimed book, The Dark Before the Dawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery, Theresa Castro states that you should take into consideration that your resume is the first exposure a potential employer will have of you.

Keep Your Phone Costs Down!
When you're looking for work, some of your expenses will change. You may not commute daily since you won't need a monthly commuter ticket, but each time you travel to an interview by public transportation, it will cost more.

Seven Steps to Making a Successful Career Change
My first job was secretary to Moses. Having to transcribe and make 2,430 copies of the Ten Commandments convinced me I was on the wrong career path! OK, maybe I'm not quite THAT old.

Back to School for a Career Change
Q. I hate my job as a computer consultant.

Use Job Search Hacks to Get Hired Faster
Job searching alone is like hitchhiking a scary ride with an unknown stranger on a 180-mile long deserted, no-exit road with hopes you'll make your destination. When you lack time or expertise to plan career moves carefully, sometimes the loss of ground is not apparent until years later.

The Perils Of Employment: Are You About To Be Let Go?
From the moment you are born and you take your first breath, you begin to die.It's just a fact of life.

I Just Lost My Job: How Am I Going To Tell My Kids?
One of the responsibilities of a human resources professional is to let employees know that their job has been eliminated. It is seldom easy to do and often painful for the person who is hearing the news.

Online Business: The Underground Railroad for Corporate Escapees
Millions of people everyday spend eight hours or more in a small padded cubicle. The curious thing about it is they choose to do that.

Interviewing Over Lunch: Are You at Risk?
Sometimes a hiring process will include having lunch with the hiring manager. Despite anything said to the contrary (like "It'll just be an informal lunch so we can get to know each other.

Learning a Foreign Language
Many people love learning languages or would like to learn a language and use their language skills in a job. In today's global economy the demand for language skills continues to grow as governments, businesses and organisations build relationships with foreign interests.

Why Are 95% of Job Applicants Not Called Back?
Have you been desperately looking for a job and keep coming up short? Despite all that you do, does every attempt you make seem to fail? Are you at that point of quitting? Ever wonder why you have not been called back? Not long ago, I was right where you are. I was all over the place, running here and there looking for the magic pill to help me.