Surfing a good career move

If you think job hunting has already become largely an online affair you ain't seen nothing yet. Last month, one of the world's major e-recruitment conferences, the ERExpo (Electronic Recruiting Exchange), was held in Florida. Auckland e-recruiter Suzanne Kendrick found that New Zealand's handful of major online job boards looked slim beside the 400 or so in the USA. The sheer number had led to a new phenomenon - aggregation sites.

ZoomInfo.com, for instance, is a summarisation search engine that finds and saves information about people on the internet. It continually scans millions of corporate websites, press releases, electronic news services, and other online sources to compile a summary about a specific person or company. It's designed for job hunters to find that elusive dream job or for their personal job nirvana to find them.

Kendrick is manager of the New Zealand branch of www.zubka.com, an initiative recently launched in Britain and here, which itself is a new twist in online recruitment. It aims to capitalise on the, until now, informal process of people referring friends, acquaintances, workmates for jobs. It will financially reward people for referring others for the jobs advertised on the site (if their suggested person is appointed).

The rate of development in other new job hunting and recruitment tools revealed at the expo suggested New Zealand is in line for a number of new trends, Kendrick said.

A major trend is for job hunters to have personal websites - effectively online CVs - that contain videos of themselves or projects they have worked on. They also contain blogs in which the job hunter seeks to establish their 'brand'.

Matt Pontin, recruitment manager for roading firm Fulton Hogan, said the online presence turns hunter into hunted.

"People are using the internet to create their own brand and their own proposition online with either a blog or their own space or webpage. They are showcasing their own skills online and giving employers the opportunity to hunt for them. It's developing into an online community that is tapped into as and when employers need skills," says Pontin.

In this environment the top three faults he sees job seekers commit are providing badly spelled and presented CVs, allowing out-of-date contact and other details to languish on job boards, and failing to list their unique selling points or personal profile in their blog, webspace or online CV.

Doing it right meant prospective employers not only knew job seekers' skills but also something about their goals, aspirations and the value they could add to their company, Pontin said.

The downside of having all your working life on the internet for all to see tends to mean that all your life is searchable, too.

"If you ever do anything dumb online when you are a kid, say, it's going to be searchable forever," Kendrick says. "Google yourself - check what is said about your on line. Employers may do this about you."

Sticking solely to the big name job sites is a common fault. Fulton Hogan, like many other large companies, has its own career website. There are also niche, industry - or location-specific sites and professional and industry associations.

Email-only contact is limiting. Online applications should be followed by a phone call to the recruiter or hiring manager "and be prepared to sell yourself on the phone," Kendrick says.

Posting a CV at many job sites or "blasting" it to many recruiters and employers is unhelpful. It is not customised to any jobs, reducing the chances of a call back. And the job seeker can't do the follow up calls.

It's important to keep track of who you've applied to and for what jobs.

CVs should be tailored for every job or at least have a job-specific covering letter.

Online tips

* Posting your CV online without worrying about privacy could put your present job at risk if it is found by your employer. It's advisable to use an anonymous email account such as Hotmail or Yahoo!

* Applying for jobs without meeting the minimum qualifications in the hope that someone will spot something interesting in the CV just trains recruiters and employers to ignore the over-hopeful.

* Applying for jobs using a work email address may violate the employer's internet policy, and/or reveal that you are on a job hunt.

* An address like hotpants@soandso.co.nz does nothing for a job seeker's credibility. So be sure to keep your email address sensible.

* Sending virus-laden emails won't win you any friends. An up-to-date anti-virus software package is essential.

* Don't limit your job search effort just to the internet. People are hired by people, so knock on doors or ask family and friends for help to land you a new job.