A modern job search campaign is by nature fairly complex. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and potential challenges for job hunters.

Job hunting needs to be thought of as a personal, very targeted marketing process where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network of contacts is your lead generating machine.

So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on Craigslist and got hundreds and hundreds applications in a calendar week. For a single position. That’s increased competition for job openings.

Had a great candidiate called us before we placed the ad, they could have secured the position before running in to all that competition. How? By finding someone at our office who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 12 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?

Be careful to check your application materials thoroughly before submitting them. When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily removed with a speedy triage process. How? The same way any hiring manager would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our position description. By rejecting prospects whose cover letters gave us grounds not to engage them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating prospects whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by rejecting job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.

So the good news is that job sites give you a sense of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still try, if you have a well honed resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.

Another downside to be aware of is how quickly you can be looked up on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to rock our thoughts about who to hire.

AA-Careers provides a encompassing set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.

Be careful out there, and good hunting!