How To Web 2.0ize Your Job Search

There's no doubt that the Web 2.0 communities springing up everywhere are creating cool new ways for niche-skills to gather and collaborate. I mean, who would have thought of an online Knitting community? But even with all of these communities out there, the “killer Web 2.0 Jobs site” has yet to be born. A lot of folks are trying and millions of dollars are being poured into it, but no real results yet. Feel free to try to talk me out of this, but the old-line job boards from the 1990's still control over 90% of the job search traffic. However, that doesn't mean that you can't use these Web 2.0 communities to your advantage in your job-search.

Executing a Web 2.0 job search

The key to a Web 2.0 job search is “findability”. That is, can employers who are looking for someone like you find you or is someone else with your same skills more findable?

And the key to findability is making a full-court press on getting your information out there for employers to find. And here are 5 steps to doing just that:

• Continually Update Your Resume - The resume is no longer something that is updated once every few years when you're looking for a job. Make sure that it is always current.
• Web 2.0ize Your Resume - That means you need to figure out the most important keywords that employers are using to find people with your skills. Then spread those keywords with the appropriate frequency throughout your resume text.
• Use Your Community Profiles To Your Advantage - Have you got a Facebook account? A LinkedIn profile? How about a MySpace page? Even a free Wetpaint wiki? Whatever it is, place your Web 2.0ized resume there. Not a link to it, the actual text. This will create more instances of your name / skills / keywords for employers to find.
• Get The Word Out - If you're using Twitter, get out the word to your community that you're looking for a job. Got Jaxtr? Throw a (professional-looking) picture on that puppy and record your VoiceBlast with a quick note about why you're great (try to stick to job skills, though…) and put it up with your resume.
• Get Ready For Response - Here's a recruiter's dirty little secret: often the difference between getting / getting submitted for a job is the quickness of your response. This explains why people without your mad skills get the job and you're left wondering what happened.

  So, what you need to do is make sure that you can respond quickest when you finally do get a nibble. To do that, set up some custom employer-focused communication like:

• Custom E-mail / Autoresponder Get an e-mail address strictly for your resume that is attached to an autoresponder which says, “Thanks for sending your information. I'm definitely looking for that 'right thing' position… You can find my most up-to-date resume here… I'll be back in contact with you within 1 business day… If this is an urgent position, my cell number is…”
• Custom Phone Number - Grab a Skype Pro account (stop whining - it's $36 a year) and set up a professional, employer-focused message. Something like, “Thanks for calling about my resume. Just to clarify, I'm a Java Developer and am wanting to concentrate mostly on Enterprise Javabeans projects in International companies” or whatever is appropriate for you. This will give employers a warm fuzzy and ensure that you're getting in line for jobs even when you can't pick up the phone.
• Pre-Programmed Mobile Responses - I'm sure your cell/PDA is Internet-enabled, so make sure that you've got already-written responses programmed in. So, whenever you are taking a break and checking your job-seeking-specific e-mail address, you can shoot a quick e-mail back saying either, “Thanks for sending the job over. I'm interested and will call you after work.” or “Thanks for sending the job over. It doesn't sound right for me, but I'll check with my friends and give them your contact info if they're interested.”

If you mass all of your Web2.0 widgets, gadgets, and communities together like this, you are going to be the one found by employers instead of the mouth-breather in the next cubicle over.

This post was written for Profy iPhone competition by Daniel R. Sweet, Owner of FRACAT - The Free Resume and Career Toolbox and author of The Job-Seeker's Guide to Resume Search Optimization and The Internet-Age Resume. Write your own Web 2.0-related guest post on the topic of your choice to get one of 4 iPhones we have remaining!