The Online Job Application Process: Get Yourself Noticed in a Virtual World

12 Ways to Create Job Connections Virtually

The barriers that job searchers face can be a huge challenge today, in the virtual world, partly because you can’t see a reassuring human face. The online job application is here. There are ways to overcome these challenges, says Maribeth Kuzmeski, an author and expert at helping create strong business relationships that help people get ahead regardless of their profession.

Kuzmeski says part of the problem is the sequence of emailing their resume and getting no response. She recommends job searchers instead make great connections with the people who can put them in front of the hiring decision makers. This is the best way to bypass the unproductive cycle.

Finding a job in today’s job market can be like conquering a new frontier for many job seekers.

The unemployment rate is currently more than 9 percent, and the job market is extremely competitive. Kuzmeski says many job seekers experience a culture shock when they send their resumes. The days of mailing a resume and receiving a phone invitation for an interview are over. Today, everything is online, from sending the resume to setting up interviews. Many job-seeksers will be surprised to discover that most employers no longer send any kind of response, not even an automated acknowledgement for the submission.

It is now extremely difficult to even be noticed by the decision makers. Maribeth Kuzmeski says she tells job seekers there are three easy steps to getting noticed by the decision makers. Network, Network, Network.

“Today you need more than a résumé and a cover letter to get that dream job,” says Kuzmeski, author of The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-48818-8, www.theconnectorsbook.com.) “Think of yourself as CEO of Me, Myself, and I, Inc. You need to be doing everything you can to get the word out about your brand. That means networking.”

Learn from other people, Kuzmeski says, and leave everyone with some part of you that they will remember.

“Great networkers are capable of leaving something behind with everyone they encounter – a thought, a memory, or a connection. This is exactly what you need to do if you are in the job market. You need to make strong connections, become a relationship builder. You want to be the first person who comes to mind when someone in your network hears about a great job opening.”

Good advice from an expert.

The Connectors book cover.
The Connectors book cover.

Alan Gray is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NewsBlaze Daily News and other online newspapers. He prefers to edit, rather than write, but sometimes an issue rears it’s head and makes him start hammering away on the keyboard.

Content Expertise

Alan has been on the internet since it first started. He loves to use his expertise in content and digital marketing to help businesses grow, through managed content services. After living in the United States for 15 years, he is now in South Australia. To learn more about how Alan can help you with content marketing and managed content services, contact him by email.

Technical Expertise

Alan is also a techie. His father was a British soldier in the 4th Indian Division in WWII, with Sikhs and Gurkhas. He was a sergeant in signals and after that, he was a printer who typeset magazines and books on his linotype machine. Those skills were passed on to Alan and his brothers, who all worked for Telecom Australia, on more advanced signals (communications). After studying electronics, communications, and computing at college, and building and repairing all kinds of electronics, Alan switched to programming and team building and management.

He has a fascination with shooting video footage and video editing, so watch out if he points his Canon 7d in your direction.