Whether you’re working your network via e-mail or scanning online classifieds every morning over coffee, chances are the internet plays some role in your job search these days.
But most websites, including Monster.com, Craigslist and members-only postings for trade associations, are still based on the classic bulletin-board model.
Looking for a job on these sites consists primarily of typing in keywords and weeding through whatever listings pop up.
More efficient
One upstart, RealMatch, takes a different track. Billing itself as the “eHarmony of the employment industry”, RealMatch borrows techniques from dating sites to more efficiently match employers and workers, using standard descriptions of skills, employment history and job preferences.
The service is free for job seekers.
Assuming you already have the basic information about your job and education history handy, building a profile takes just a few minutes.
RealMatch’s system is a great deal less cumbersome than many competing sites.
Choosing a particular job title pulls up an associated group of skills common in that field and you specify your level of talent in each.
Further prompts ask you for details about your job history, education, relevant hobbies and so forth.
Meanwhile, employers create profiles for the jobs they want to fill, using the same menus for associated skills and experience levels.
That common language of titles and skills eliminates the guesswork inherent in keyword searches.
Once your profile is saved, RealMatch’s software looks for overlap with ads and presents the results to both the job
seeker and the employer ranked by the quality of the match: “great”, “good” or “basic”.
Job seekers can then either initiate a conversation with matching employers or wait to hear from them.
The site does have a few drawbacks, namely in the number and variety of jobs available.
RealMatch was launched as a standalone online job-search site but a sister programme already runs more than 1,000 newspapers’ job-market sites, giving RealMatch a jump-start on attracting listings.
Number to grow
I expect the number of jobs to grow on this site as well as on other free sites, given the minimal upfront investment needed.
With RealMatch, employers pay only when they find a candidate in whom they are interested, a strong enticement to post their jobs there instead of relying only on what company executives dub the “pay, post and pray” approach of most job sites.
And that’s a sentiment that should appeal to job seekers as well.
Résumé
Lies they tell
Although only 8 per cent of workers admitted to stretching the truth on their résumés, nearly half of hiring managers reported they have caught a candidate lying on his or her résumé, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey.
The most common résumé lies included embellishing responsibilities and skills, fudging dates of employment and faking degrees and job titles.
But some people got more creative, according to the hiring managers. They cited applicants who:
- Claimed to be a member of the Kennedy family.
- Invented a school that did not exist.
- Submitted a résumé with someone else’s photo inserted in the document.
- Listed military experience dating back to before he was born.
- Included samples of work which actually the interviewer did.
