If you’re a successful professional without a LinkedIn account, you’re considered pretty weird (or maybe a jewel thief in hiding) in our hyper-share society. There’s no denying that technology has changed the job market for both employers and employees, but it’s especially affected the hiring process.
The CEO of Sparkhire, Josh Tolan, recently spoke about how technology has changed the way employers hire and recruit. But the same points can be flipped on their heads to become tips (and a heads-up) for job seekers. If you’re looking for a job, here are a few new methods you’ll probably run into.
Pssst – check out more tips to help you build a better career:
Resume for Twits – uh, Tweeps
Author Josh Tolan, CEO of SparkHire, makes four points. The first one is about Twesumes. Great, just what we needed – another stupid word derived from Twitter. #Lame. But Tolan points to evidence that some companies are now looking for job candidates on Twitter. A Twesume is a resume in 140-characters or less. The idea is to link to a website, resume, or social media profile, but I have a feeling this would be torturous.
This is pretty much my nightmare, both as a job seeker and as a person. I don’t do well in short-form and I don’t know how one keeps their resume to a handful of words. It’s hard enough to get it down to one page! I have to tweet discussion questions for a new technology class right now, and it takes me a half an hour to cut them down to the appropriate number of characters. It’s not fun.
Business on the top, party on the bottom
Tolan also talks about companies embracing video interviews. Six out of 10 companies apparently use this method of interviewing in their job search. It reportedly cuts down on the time it takes to hire.
From the job seeker’s perspective, though, it has its own benefits. First of all, you can interview in your sweatpants. You really only need to get dressed from the waist up (although I have heard a horror story about someone being asked to stand mid-interview). There’s no awkward small talk with secretaries, no waiting in lobbies, and no figuring out where to park.
A Skype interview also means you can go for jobs that are housed in offices that might be farther away and difficult to get to during the workweek. And instead of taking hours off of work to go to an interview, you might be able to simply cut out an hour early, or come in an hour late, and still make it work.
A one-sided endeavour
Mobile interviews are the third trend discussed and, in these interviews, job seekers answer pre-recorded questions. The goal is to help employers cut down on phone screening, as they can pre-screen candidates by having them answer questions on video. I hate this idea.
I feel like it puts a lot more work on the job seeker. Sure, it cuts down on the company’s time spent interviewing, but it makes each candidate find the time to get dressed up, sit down, and record answers to questions on video. So, basically, the job candidate now has to put in the effort because the HR workers are trying to make things run smoother – only the HR people are the ones who get paid for their work in the process.
Seeking attention, seeking employment
Lastly, the job search campaign is mentioned – though this one seems slanted toward the job seeker. What this means is that some people are starting their own campaigns for their dream jobs. I really think this is pretty desperate. Sorry. Maybe I’m just not that into working, but I can’t imagine making myself a “commodity on Amazon” or something similar.
