A Turbocharged Online Search Strategy Could Help You Find Your Next Job!

Will everyone who's currently unemployed please raise your hand?

Wow… Quite a few of you. And my hand is raised too. I've become unemployed three times in the past ten years: Once when the division in which I worked was eliminated. Once from corporate downsizing. And most recently, when my employer's bank pulled the plug and shut down the firm. So I’ve been a frequent job-hunter over the past decade. And as a result, I've also become a bit of a contrarian.

Specifically, I'm amazed at how many career counselors and “one-stop job centers” deride online job searching in favor of hitting the pavement and attending personal networking meetings. Their mantra is that job hunters should spend at most 30 minutes a day scanning online job boards… and the rest of the time hitting streets and pressing flesh.

I'm risking a backlash by saying this, but.... hogwash! In today's wired world, the theory that physical networking is more effective than online job searching isn't as true as it once was. And to be honest, I've never once in ten years been helped by networking meetings. I've helped a few people in them, but have never benefited from them myself. (The reason, I think, is that technical writing isn't the sort of job that most people are likely to hear about.)

But every new job that I've taken during the past decade I’ve found online... and not by burning shoe leather. You too can find your next job online, using a simple but effective search strategy that has helped me over and over again. I call it “Crosshatch Searching,” and it may even help you find work that you enjoy more than anything you've done before! I say that because each of the jobs I've taken has been increasingly satisfying and rewarding… solely as a result of this “Crosshatch Search” technique.

The method may be similar to what you already do. But it might be just different enough to improve your results... and even make the job hunt more enjoyable!

Putting “Networking” in its Place

The common wisdom that interpersonal networking results in 70-85% of all jobs that are found appears to have been repeated (without fact-checking) since the latter years of the 20^th century. But now, just over a decade into the 21^st, interpersonal networking seems to be responsible for only about 30% of all new jobs that are found… with Internet searches delivering at least that many or more.

Today, the success of one’s job hunt seems to depend on whether you favor personal networking or online searching, and that in turn appears to depend on age. In 2010, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development and Boston College’s Sloane Center for Aging & Work released a report titled “The ‘New Unemployables’: Older Job Seekers Struggle to Find Work During the Great Recession.” (You can download a PDF of their report here.)

Between 2007 and 2010, they interviewed nearly 1,000 job hunters of all ages, and found that “older” people (those over 55... like me) were much more likely to pound the pavement, attend networking events, scan newspaper want ads, mail out tons of resumes, and cold-call potential employers. But younger job hunters were more likely to search online. While only 13% of older job hunters used the Internet in their searches (mostly corporate job pages and online job lists), more than twice as many younger people (28%) used the Internet (mostly by scanning Craigslist and Indeed.com and leveraging social-networking contacts on Facebook and Twitter). These differences in emphasis and approach (along with age itself and lower salary expectations) are believed to result in shorter periods of unemployment for younger job seekers.

Search Smarter, Not Harder

So it appears that every job hunter could benefit from spending more time searching the Web for their next position... not less. And in today’s wired world, you’d be crazy not to.

But it’s easy to waste tons of time searching and scanning online boards in the usual ways. Key to searching smarter, as opposed to harder, is the kind of Crosshatch Search strategy that has helped me. It can quickly data-mine the world's online job databases to find positions of high interest to you.

Crosshatch Searching in a Nutshell

The global jobs database is like a cloud. And the "Crosshatch Searches" described in this article can scan this cloud across many different dimensions. Some searches (like A, B, and C in the diagram) do not overlap. They might, for instance, search for jobs in particular towns within your preferred commuting range. Some searches (like D and E)— while they also don't overlap with each other— may intersect with your previous searches. In this example, D and E could represent specific professional tools that you know how to use. And still other searches (like F) are along dimensions that can intersect with any of the others (F might represent a search for all jobs offered by a specific company in which you are interested... or a search for a specific job function). Job-hunting gold lies both in the yellow zones where two searches intersect and... especially... in the green zones where multiple searches converge on a single job! While these searches may look and sound technical, they aren't at all difficult... and could even improve your job-hunting results.

Preparing to Search

But first, you must prepare for the search by collecting the following information about yourself:

(1) List what you want from your next position.

You can’t find a job that will satisfy you if you don’t know what you want from it. And you cannot simply say, “I want my next accounting job,” and call it a day! You need to list the detailed characteristics of a job that would make you truly happy at this point in your life. Listing these contentment factors will both streamline your search and boost your motivation for the hunt… so write down the job characteristics that most appeal to you. These will include things like:

• Type(s) of industry— The job function you've been performing will usually play well in other industries. Don’t limit yourself to your prior employer’s industry. Jot down any other industries that might excite you. In my case, I’ve spent nearly 20 years as a writer in the computer industry, but I’ve always loved architecture and building design. And my motivation for job hunting grew astronomically when I also started searching for writing jobs in architectural and construction firms. If you pull your personal interests into your searches, your next job could offer an exciting change of pace!
• Job function(s)— Write down multiple terms for each job function you seek. As a technical writer, my list would include at least the terms “technical writer”, “technical writing”, “writer”, “writing”, “documentation”, and “online Help”. (Note that different versions of the same concept... like “writer” and “writing”…will help your searches find more jobs.)
• Employer size— If you’ve paid your dues in bigger companies, maybe a smaller entrepreneurial firm (which might use more of your talents) may appeal. If so, note that for your own reference when you consider possible employers.
• Commuting distance— If you (like I) have come to detest long commutes, maybe a job within five or ten miles of home would put a smile on your face when you hop in the car each morning. So haul out a map and list all towns that are within your ideal commuting distance from home. (Similarly, if you'd enjoy working in a different city, state, or country, list that as well.)
• Professional tools used— List any tools you’ve used in your profession. As a technical writer, my list would include Adobe FrameMaker, Acrobat, Word, Excel, Photoshop, and Captivate (among others). Also list any tools that your research tells you are becoming increasingly important in your field (such as Camtasia is in mine). You might just find a company that’s willing to train you to use these new tools. (Or, consider taking a class about them or teaching yourself.)
• Professional trade associations— List the important professional associations for your job functions. (In my technical-writing field, it’s the Society for Technical Communication.)
• Specific target companies— During your searches, you’ll discover companies that you never heard of, but which are intriguing. They may be in your old industry or in the new industries that you listed above. Write down these target firms... along with any other desired companies that you already know about.

When completed, the above list will contain the keywords (dimensions) of your Crosshatch Searches. They will help you discover jobs that you really WANT to pursue with gusto.

(2) Next, list your favorite online job boards. Mine are (in this order):

• Craigslist.com— This may be the most active and searchable job board out there. In fact, if an employer doesn’t post their positions here, I truly wonder how viable they will remain in today’s wired world.
• Indeed.com— Job "aggregator" sites list all jobs that have been posted on the web, and Indeed is one of the best. It’s also free!
• Dice.com— I search this occasionally, since I work in high-tech… but Craigslist and Indeed still get more of my eye time.

But you may have your own favorites. List them too.

During your searches, you may discover other more focused job boards to add to this list. For example, when Indeed.com finds an interesting job, I always look at where Indeed found the job before I even read its description. In my case, I'd love to apply my writing skills in a collegiate setting. So when one of my Crosshatch Searches found a job that was listed on HigherEdJobs.com, that site went right to the top of my favorite job boards.

Let the Searching BEGIN!

With all this information in a handy checklist, you're ready to begin searching. Every online job board is your window into the world's multi-dimensional employment database. And Crosshatch Searching is an organized way to mine this database across many different dimensions. These dimensions are the keywords in the list you just compiled. Using them in your searches enables you to (1) find more jobs that meet your satisfaction criteria and (2) find jobs that you may not have noticed before. In a tight job market like ours, the more opportunities you locate and the faster you find them, the better! So make a point of Crosshatch Searching each of your favorite job boards at least once a week... and daily if possible.

Why daily? Because it never hurts to get your foot in a potential employer's door before others even know the door is there. And if you spot a new job sooner, your competition for the position may be reduced. Your advantage will be especially great over people who simply scroll through endless job lists… rather than applying a search strategy like ours.

So here's the Crosshatch Search technique I've used to mine the world's job databases, and to find all of my permanent positions during the past decade:

1. Search each of your target job boards using the town names that you listed as being within your ideal commuting distance. (I like to do this first because it quickly alerts me to any jobs that appeared in my desired commuting range.)
2. Search each of the target job boards using as keywords the industries, job-function terms, professional tools, and specific target companies you listed above. Each of these searches scans all jobs along one specific dimension of the global jobs database.
3. Scan the results from each of the above searches, add any interesting companies that they unearth to your target-company list, and of course, apply to any jobs that appeal. You may even notice a company/job that has appeared in one or more of your prior searches. That's job-hunting gold... Definitely apply for any of that company's jobs that seem to fit!
4. Frequently go to the websites of the firms in your target-company list. Scan their own “Careers” or “Employment” pages. More than once, this has led me to jobs that were being offered “internally” before they appeared on most web aggregators' lists.
5. Frequently check any job databases that are maintained by the professional trade associations on your list.
6. Continuously refine all of your search lists, as you discover new companies, job boards, and job-satisfaction data about yourself.
7. Keep searching and applying!

A New Kind of Networking

To be fair to the “networking” concept, today's wired world gives us new and vastly more efficient ways to network… ways that can be stunningly effective! And I’m not just talking about using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (which you should do). For instance, as a technical writer, I’m familiar with the jobs database that’s maintained by the Society for Technical Communication. But every other technical writer in the world also knows about it. So this STC database gives me no advantage over competing job-hunters.

But one of my Crosshatch Searches on Craigslist once found an email-based networking group just for technical writers in New England. Companies and employment agencies that are “in the know” send instant job alerts to this list, and technical writers broadcast alerts about unadvertised jobs that they’ve just heard of or turned down. This e-version of what's often called the "Hidden Job Market" is still fairly unknown, so the group's members have an instant advantage over other technical writers who haven't yet heard of it.

Maybe there’s a similar email networking group for your industry or job function! Your Crosshatch Searching might discover it… but also use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to ask others in your field if they know of one. And search Yahoo’s, Google’s, and LinkedIn's many online groups… you may find one there. If you do, it could have a strange name. My technical writers’ email group is called "ninanet-writers." Huh? So it might be a bit difficult to find a similar group for your needs. But if you do, it'll be worth it!

Go for it!

Positions for which you really want to apply may not show up every week. But since Crosshatch Searching focuses your job hunt on industries, organizations, and functions that really excite you, it can actually deliver more quality jobs for your consideration in less time. The technique is also free and easy to use… so why not give it a try!

• When you search any online job board, look for an RSS button somewhere on the results page. Click it, provide any requested information, and the site should start sending updated results from that search to you every day. Set up your Crosshatch Searches as RSS feeds, and you can begin your day with coffee and the latest RSS results!
• Don't pay to have someone write or rewrite your resume... no matter how often they email you about their service. If you haven't already, you'll soon discover that most job agencies and many corporate application sites will want your resume in their own favored format. And you should customize your resume and cover letter for every application anyway. So don't pay someone to write a boilerplate resume that many of your prospects won't want!
• That said, a superb site about writing knockout resumes (for anyone, but especially for career changers) is at www.rockportinstitute.com.