5 New Tech Trends in Job Searching
By Hannah Morgan
Monitoring human resource and recruiting technology news can reveal some interesting new trends coming to a job search near you.
Finding the right talent match is becoming tougher for many companies, and that struggle is spawning new apps, marketing tactics and services. With so many new tools hitting the recruiting market, you never know which you may run into or which ones will stick around. Some may even help you make your mark and get hired. Here are five recruiting trends to watch for:
Get on a billboard. You don’t need to be a mega star to be featured on a billboard. If you’re in the technology world, you should know about Dice’s “Find the hottest tech talent” billboard campaign. Driving around San Francisco, Austin, Seattle or New York City, you may have seen billboards with an underwear-clad programmer or engineer — not a model, but a real tech professional. Due to the popular response to the campaign, Dice is conducting another casting call.
Use the company’s product. A “Snapchat” video went viral recently when an eager MBA student posted his qualifications for a job at “Snapchat” using their very own tool. Elski Felson used his favorite app to humorously share his qualifications for a current opening with the company. Felson’s video on Youtube received more than a million views since he posted it at the end of February, and his story made it to the top of Reddit and other social channels.
If you are interested in working for a company, try posting a video cover letter featuring the product. In fact, companies like Zappos encourage video cover letters.
Search passively and covertly. You want a new job, but you don’t want your boss to find out. Posting your résumé on a job board or eagerly updating your LinkedIn profile can throw a red flag, so launching a confidential search sounds like an oxymoron.
It’s tricky to reach out to people to share that you are searching and, in the same breath, also say it’s got to be kept quiet. Enter “Switch,” a mobile app geared toward job seekers in the tech sector. Business Insider likens Switch to Tinder, the dating app. “Switch” lets you swipe jobs you like, and if an employer likes your anonymously posted qualifications, the two of you can chat. Based on what you like or are interested in, “Switch will start delivering only personalized, relevant postings,” according to the “Switch” website, switchapp.com.
There are other apps doing this as well: “Poacht” (mobile app) and Poachable (website).
Learn from others eager to help. Reaching out to people for advice or an informational meeting can be a crap shoot. Emails and LinkedIn requests to connect are often ignored. But what if you could have access to someone who has stepped forward and really wants to help?
That’s what you can do with a new networking tool called WiseWords. In a few steps, you can make contact with someone who can provide advice and information on a career you are interested in. First, search through the database of more than 5,000 professionals from many different industries. Next, find a mutually agreeable time, and the call is scheduled.
Some of the advisers charge a fee for the call, so make the most of your time by strategizing your questions for your informational meeting. You could use the service to get career advice, network, have your portfolio or résumé reviewed, practice interviewing or gain job insights.
Star in video. Soon, you may not have a choice. Prescreening calls are moving to prescreening videos. The good news: You can reshoot your answer until you get it just right. The bad news: Your answer will be digitally archived.
Practice video recording yourself, so you can assess what you need to work on. Also be sure you’ve mapped out the bullet points for your one-minute-or-less answer. Smile, look at the camera and pick a neutral background. Companies such as WePow and Jobvite are building interviewing capabilities to help both recruiters and job seekers let their true personalities shine.
Some of these apps, tools and trends will catch on, and others may not. All of them are worthy of noting, just in case.
Hannah Morgan writes and speaks on career topics and job search trends on her blog Career Sherpa. She co-authored “Social Networking for Business Success,” and has developed and delivered programs to help job seekers understand how to look for work better.
http://news.yahoo.com/5-tech-trends-job-searching-145937138.html;_ylt=AwrSyCOOiBBVulYADFnQtDMD
