I remember the high frustration as a job seeker when applying for jobs online. I know, not a great strategy… but at the time I didn’t know better.

I remember spending 45 minutes trying to get my application posted, to find out at the end there was a problem.

Or,  uploading my resume, only to have to copy and paste each section into form fields… oh how I hated the duplication!

This happened with really big companies.  Then I would wait, hopeful, for someone to get back to me.  I’d wait, and wait and wait and wait. I found out this is what they call the “resume black hole.”

Could the “candidate” (that’s you) experience be better?  Definitely.

Chris Brablc, author of the post, has some great ideas.

But you’ll see in the comments not everyone agrees.  I agree with Cora Mae’s overall point: just be respectful and treat job seekers like human beings.  But that’s not always possible, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of applications.

I know one thing – the idea of the resume black hole is creating corporate branding black eyes.  I would chat with other job seekers about some horrible and disrespectful experiences during the job search, interviews, networking, etc. that made us all think “I’m not going to shop there anymore” or “I’m not going to be a customer there anymore.”

There are a lot of reasons to make the job search process better and more civil to job seekers. I can’t believe in 2012 we are still having this conversation.  Frustrating!

Evil HR Lady answers a question from a frustrated job seeker, and basically narrows in on why her resume is not effective.

It was different than what I thought it would be.  It’s not about spelling or grammar… in a nutshell it’s about what the resume is actually communicating (which was nothing but confusion).

This is one reason why I’m not an advocate of family and friends critiquing your resume… they usually know something about you to mentally fill in the gaps.  And if they don’t, they are impressed that your not the lazy bum they thought you were.

They look for grammar and spelling and are quite impressed with your credentials, even if they don’t understand them.

But your real audience… the hiring manager, the HR person, the recruiter, need to get sold on you.  Your resume needs to clearly show them that you are qualified, and the right person to bring in to an interview.

Jargon and cliche doesn’t accomplish that, even if it’s spelled right.

Check out the article here.

(props to @StacyZapar for tweeting a link to this article)

Klout is a system that gives you a “score” to basically tell you how cool you are online.

Supposedly, some interviewers have been asking what a candidate’s Klout score is, and on the thread someone even said they heard of a candidate getting a job simply because his Klout score was higher than the other person’s.

Here’s a post on RecruitingBlogs about Klout: Karing Enough About Your Kareer Prospects Should Konvince You To Give A Krap About Klout

I personally thing Klout is something you should not worry about.  I don’t have a Klout account. I am not worried about it.

The only exception would be if you are in social media marketing, and you are supposedly an “expert,” having a high Klout score can show that you know how to, um, get a high Klout score.  Whatever that means. (it can be gamed, as can most metrics)

Should you worry about it?  Generally speaking, no.  Check out Peter Ceccarelli’s comment on that post if you are on the fence.

There are things you communicate in your job search that help people judge you.  Check out this post by Bob McIntosh at Recruiting Blogs: A bad attitude can hurt your chances in the job search

Bob’s post should be required reading by all job seekers.  You think some things you communicate might slip under the radar, but when we look at job seekers, we are looking for red flags.  Anything you communicate can be a reason for them to judge and stereotype you.

You don’t have to change into something you aren’t, of course. No one is telling you to change your entire being.  But you must understand the words you use, the clothes you wear, the way you communicate will affect how successful you are in your job search.

Imagine this:

What if you sat down for an interview and they asked you for a copy of your resume.  You stand up and pull a resume out of your pocket, unfold it, try and flatten it out, and hand it to them.

Would you ever do this? Of course not!

But you might be doing something as crazy as this by the things Bob lists in his post.  Go read his post and be more intentional about how you communicate in your job search!

Your resume is one of the key tools you need to have ready.  I wasted the first week of my job search looking for my old one before I decided to write a new one.

Knowing what I know now, I should have just paid a professional to write my resume.

Here’s an excellent DIY post, if you want to write your own resume: Your Resume the Key to new Opportunities

Once done, send it to Career Resumes for a free resume critique. Or, if you are too busy with other job search tasks (it’s really a busy time, and many people don’t have the time or mental bandwidth to write their own resume (I didn’t – it was stressful trying to brag about myself)), check out the professional and executive resume writing services from Career Resumes.

Jeremy walks you through seven steps of his career change, and talks about a book that was helpful.

How do you make a career change?  Is it methodical?  Do you do it based on how successful you are, or is it whimsical?

Check out Jeremy’s post.  If nothing, it should encourage you to be more methodical and process-oriented.

That’s fine… with one exception.  There’s a lot of bad information out there.

Some advice comes from people who are looking for the “easy button”… in other words, people who say “do these __ things and then you can sit back and wait for the job offers (or networking inquiries) come to you.”

Other advice comes from people who are bought into what the experts seem to be saying, without really thinking about what people should do.  Their advice is, in my opinion, wrong, even though it sounds good.  Perhaps they are just regurgitating and haven’t thought through what they really should do?

Other advice comes from people who don’t understand or care about networking and relationships.  They might be the marketing spammer, or the person who hasn’t really networked for ten years, but they sure know how to tell YOU what to do.

With LinkedIn there is no silver bullet.  But There are some solid things you should do.  I’ll list those below.  Before I list them you can check out a post titled How to use LinkedIn to be found by Headhunters and Hires.  I don’t agree with all of the points, but in general it’s a pretty good post.

1. Beef up your profile.  I’m not big on the 100% completion for a couple of reasons(a. people focus on the number, even when the content they write is weak, and b. LinkedIn adds new stuff, and can bump you down 5% or so each time they add something new … it’s a moving target), but you should have a high percentage complete.  And it should be HIGH QUALITY, not just filler stuff.  For example, more than 90% of the Summaries I see are really poorly crafted.

2. Make connections in your field.  As you connect with others you can tap into their networks, and become more visible to their contacts.  If they are in your field, the connections are much more relevant.

3.  Communicate with others.  Too many people join LinkedIn, put up a skeleton profile, and then complain that it doesn’t work for them.  They need to proactively engage and reach out to others.

4. Search and reach out.  I know it sounds simple, but you need to use LinkedIn as a tool to find prospects and reach out to them (whether it’s a cold-call type message, or a warm introduction). Again, this is a proactive tactic, and you need to employ it.

There are dozens of things I *could* tell you to do, but the bottom line is this is a great tool, and you need to work it.  Not just get on it, but do something with it!

In the article Joshua compares Facebook to LinkedIn, as far as they are relevant for job seekers.  A year or so ago there wasn’t really a good comparison, since Facebook wasn’t made for professional networking.  There are some things that have changed that:

1. Facebook’s size…. approaching 1 billion signups (not, I argue, users), vs. LinkedIn approaching 200 million signups.  Both are huge numbers, but Facebook is about 5 times (or more) the size of LinkedIn, as far as the userbase.  This isn’t necessarily a good thing (more spammers, more people not-at-all interested in your business, career, brand, etc.), but it’s an important factor.
2. Facebook Apps like BranchOut allow you to do professional networking activities on Facebook, and some say this makes it like a LinkedIn (or, LinkedIn for Facebook).

To put this argument into perspective, we could also say that Pinterest is a huge, fast-growing social network, and maybe that will be more important or relevant than LinkedIn, right?

Wrong.  We’re comparing apples to oranges in a way that not many people talk about.  Most people, when doing this comparison, talk about stats and facts (like #1 and #2 above), but they don’t talk about why people go to a particular social site.

Why do people go to Pinterest? (and, for that matter, WHO is going to Pinterest?  I would argue that people who want to see cute, fun, sassy and clever are going to Pinterest.  I don’t think recruiters are going there to look for talent, and unemployed people are going there to do a job search.  I don’t think most businesses are going to Pinterest to find new clients (they are still trying to figure out what Pinterest is).

You can compare the size and growth of Pinterest to other social networks, but you HAVE TO say why people are going there.

Did you hear that when Facebook opened up to people outside of universities, many users (students) left Facebook, because they didn’t want to go to an environment where their parents and non-school people could easily and freely come?  It was practically blasphemous that Facebook opened up to people who shouldn’t have been allowed in.

So ask, why do people go to Facebook?  Why do they go to LinkedIn?  I would suggest they are very different reasons…

Is it fair to do this type of comparison?   Yes, but I think it’s too early to draw solid conclusions.

Longer answer: Check out this post by recruiter Jessica Lunk: Do You Need Pinterest in Your Marketing Arsenal? Her final line, speaking to recruiters, is this:

The challenge is not figuring out how to use Pinterest, but how to rethink the way you present your content to keep up with online consumption trends.

Pinterest is dominated by the here’s what’s cute and clever, mostly for lifestyle and fun and fitness… but not for anything business or career.  How do you put a resume, as cool as it might be, as a pinned image.  It would seem out of place.

My opinion: focus on LinkedIn, and perhaps other places where for sure recruiters, or your audience, is.

(of course, if you have a business with products or services to put in front of Pinterest’s demographic, go for it!  But Pinterest is not a one-size-fits-all-best-new-social-network for everyone.)

I didn’t want to go, at all.  My body said NO!!  My workload said NO!!

But I went anyway.

I spent less time on the exercise bike than I normally do, and didn’t do as much weightlifting as I normally do. I probably did about half of what I normally do.

But I went anyway.  And I’m glad I did.

I didn’t do as much, but I did something.

I know there are days in the job search when you don’t want to do anything.  It seems futile and hopeless.

But you need to do something, every day.  For some of you that means making a phone call.  For others it might mean just getting out of bed and getting ready to go out and see human beings.

Whatever it is, do something.

Here’s a bonus concept: The job search doesn’t have to be drudgery.  It was for me, for months.  But then something clicked, and it became fun.  The stress was gone and instead of focusing on do-or-die, I was able to have fun with my contacts and the entire process.

Make it fun, and you’ll want to do something every day.