Day 4 Don’t rely on old knowledge and skills to find a new job

The last time I began a new job search was in 2003. But when I started looking again three years later in 2006 I quickly discovered that the rules and methods for finding a job and applying for it have radically changed.

The first change I noticed is that most job postings today are being done electronically. I used to rely on (for a subscription fee) a monthly mailing from my old alumni placement office for a listing of a few dozen jobs. A posting could be nearly a month old before I received it.

Today job seekers subscribe to Internet job boards. I fill out a free profile and request personalized job alerts to be sent to my email address daily or even hourly. I get a steady stream of job postings sent to me every day from several electronic job boards. The upside is that I am getting very fresh job postings. The downside is that most alerts do a very poor job of identifying useful leads.

The Internet allows me to do a much broader search for job postings than the old ways of finding job leads. Another downside is that I am often overwhelmed with dozens and even hundreds of worthless job postings.

The second change I noticed is that most companies want you to submit an electronic resume and not a paper one. It was not that long ago that you typed your resume and cover letter and mailed it to a potential employer. Today you submit it over the Internet via Email or you fill out an online application and upload your resume and cover letter and submit it on the company website.

The upside to this change is that you speed up the process of getting your resume to the employer. The downside is that you need to learn how to fill out and submit online applications. This is an essential skill you must learn. With many companies, the only way you can apply for a position is by doing it online. They no longer accept paper resumes.

Today you have to learn how to search for jobs on the Internet and you have to learn how to apply for them online. It is essential to learn how to do both. Learn and change how you look for work if you hope to make a successful job or career transition at this stage of your life.