Breaking Free from the Gravitational Pull of the Black Hole Recruiting Box, Land that Dream Job Using what you know!

The first stop for most job seekers is to rapidly start combing through the Job Boards. However, while it may seem that going directly to “Job Board” like we did in college, things in the “REAL” world are a bit different. No longer can we simply rip off the job offer from the job board at the student union and expect some type of response when we apply.

• First thing that any job seeker needs to know is that the majority of jobs listed on those online job boards have been there for a long while in most cases.
• Secondly, job seekers need to know how to avoid being sucked into the vortex of what many have termed “The Black Hole Recruiting Box”.
• Lastly, how the changes in the SEO and Social Media sites require a job seekers attention.

When you begin your job hunting project, the first thing one should do it to contact your friend networks. According to an article written by Nelson D. Schwartz of in The New York Times titled “In Hiring, a Friend in Need Is a Prospect, Indeed” confirms that the quickest way to find that job is through your network of friends. Most job availabilities will never get posted to the job boards, simply because before the job ever reaches the HR. department, a friend of a friend has been recommended, interviewed, and accepted the position.

• Job never reach the Job Board or listed once it goes through the HR. process after the opening has already been filled.

Now that you won’t be perusing the job listings online and you have tapped out all your friend network connections, what should be doing next? Glad you were thinking that, allow us to enlighten you to something called the Blackhole Recruiting Box which is the secret weapon held by all HR. departments.

Since the advent of the business community and the beginning of the internet age corporations and small businesses alike have had “Filters” by which they weed out and sort through resume’s and applications. Prior to the internet age, it was called “File 13”, better known as the trashcan, now we call it the “blackhole recruiting box”. With the new name comes a new set of “filters” which all Human Resource Departments have implemented since the advent of the digital age.

While this isn’t something new to the business world, it does require that job seekers learn how to avoid the powerful suction the new filters have. Those new filters are called KEYWORDS. However this isn’t a new concept, simply technology giving it a new application.

• Interviewers have always listened for certain key words or phrases that are known within their own specific industry. If an applicant or resume’ didn’t trigger those specific key words, then the applicant is simply passed over for the next one. Keywords are today’s interviewers that every job seeker should be aware of.

With all the changes that search engines and social media sites have done recently this should be your first clue into the “New” way employers filtering applicants now days. The applicants tracking system employed by most every company seeking employees, is filtering your online application or resume’ faster than ever before.

• Insure that your application or resume’ has the industry specific keywords, however you need to be aware that “keyword stuffing” is one of the changes done recently that causes your application to be sucked into the abyss of the blackhole recruiting box trashcan.

• Be aware that when you send in your resume’ or online application, the first thing that most Applicant Tracking Systems incorporating a new set of algorithms that will look at your online personality (Social Media) in connection with your application.
Never before in the history of the internet has it become so vitality important for job seekers to understand the new world that the internet has created.

There was an article recently written titled, “The Write Side of Content Marketing” written by Cassandra Parsons that fits into the job seeker’s understanding of avoiding the black hole scenario. In that article, she discusses the fact that our online presence is increasingly more and more important in our job searches, however she does present in the context of content marketing however who we are and what we say and do publicly, are becoming an important factor throughout all industries.

Different industry, but the implications of the same application tracking software is illuminated. In that article she shares a nugget that when potential employers begin investigating possible applicants, their first stop is the social media pages, and how we are “telegraphing ourselves” to the public long before we know.

However, what this article doesn’t say is that the ATS systems that most HR. departments employ are becoming increasingly more sophisticated so that their filters include the applicants personal profile information as well as the resume’ that was submitted.

It takes many streams and tributaries to create a Mighty River, and it requires the continual input from those tributaries and streams to continue to grow and flow. By combining, what you know and the Principles of how the mighty rivers and oceans were formed will give you a brighter today and will build an attainable retirement pool for your tomorrow.

Regardless of whether you are 20 and just starting out in the job market, 50 or 60 something staring at retirement sooner that you thought, you will be guided step by step on how to have that brighter outlook on your finances TODAY and Tomorrow. Through Using what YOU KNOW to take you where you want TO GO!

As a published author and freelance writer, it allows me the unique perspective of seeing both write sides of this subject. No, that wasn’t a typo, because authors are freelance writers and freelance writers are authors, and both are right brain creatively enlightened. However, one clearly has discovered the logical left brain connection to earning a living by doing what they love, and the other hasn’t.

As a writer who started out not being able to write a word, to helping a Pastor write two of his books, and then finally traditionally publishing my own work, I never really understood egocentric nature that some authors have. Nor do I understand why all authors can’t see that you don’t have to have the byline to have your thoughts, and opinions published for others to learn from.

Through this article I hope to shed some light on the link between authors of books, and freelance writers writing daily content for others in the world of content marketing. Also, through this article we shall explore how writers of all types can begin to see that by removing the authors’ ego from their writing, they can actually soar high and free in the world of freelance writing and earn a very nice living.

1. Applying to online job boards are a complete waste of your time!

Beginning your job search in the online job boards aren’t like they were in college. The positions listed are more than likely space holders for the companies that “may” post job listings. You are more likely to find your next job through your friend connections than you are at getting even a call back from online job boards.

2. Apply industry specific keywords strategically throughout your application or resume’.

Learn how to navigate through the maze of “filters” that companies are putting in place with their Applicant Tracking Systems currently in use.

Don’t over stuff the industry specific keywords, simply sprinkle them strategically throughout your application or resume’ like salting your food that you eat. The spyder bots of the search engines and ATS systems are consuming your application for such keywords and phrases.

3. How does your Personal Life and your Work Life Interconnect?

Begin looking at your online personal presence and the resumes and applications that you submit are actually being compared. Employers are seeking applicants where their online presence and their offline persona match, and don’t demonstrate a conflict between the two.

Referrals from friends are more likely to result in you finding that perfect job with that perfect employer than any online job board ever will.

So why waste your valuable time and talent there, and get busy insuring you are projecting an applicant worthy of an interviewer’s time. Standout from the crowd, don’t get lost in the stereotypical experience of being sucked into the gravitation pull of the vortex of the ill-fated blackhole recruiting box.

4. Use What You Know to Take you Where You Want to Go throughout your Job Search, Career and even through your Retirement!