Finding a job on the internet

Most job seekers that are currently active in finding a job on the internet make the mistake of signing up to recruitment websites and then going no further with their job search. Lots of job seekers are under the impression that the job will find them and, unfortunately, searching the internet for jobs doesn't work as simply as this and people are missing out on opportunities that make themselves available to those who invest a bit more time and effort in the process.

If you don't quite know how to use the internet to your benefit, then please read on - we have put some quick tips together to help you use the internet to land that perfect role.

Do's and Don'ts

Don't:

• Don't be mistaken that if you sign up to a job board that sends you email updates, that you can leave it to do the work for you. The way marketing works on the internet could well mean that when you signed up, you could not opt for everything you were interested in - meaning you may be missing out on that perfect job because the alerts aren't informing you of everything in your skill set.
• Be aware of scams - anyone can advertise on a job site and if a job appears to good to be true then it probably is. Offering you £2,000 a month to stuff envelopes is ridiculous! Whilst some of these opportunities are genuine, they are more likely to be self employed roles where you have an initial fee to pay out - be aware, too good to be true opportunities are most probably just that - too good to be true.
• Don't just scatter your CV all over the place randomly.  Apply for jobs that are right for you and build a relationship with the recruitment agencies that use that particular board

Do:

• use smaller recruitment websites that are based locally, as well as larger companies.
• once you have found a good job board, save it to your bookmarks so you can easily find it again - once you've gone off to a different website, it's easy to forget the last ones you visited
• spend time searching and put the work in - those jobs will not come to you
• think of the different titles that could be used to describe the job you want, and do a few searches to ensure you are covering all of those you can think of
• when you apply, try to apply directly to the company rather than online - and follow their instructions, if the company wants you to complete an application form rather than sending in a resume, do exactly that  
• apply for fewer and better suited jobs rather than lots of jobs that don't really suit your experience, skills or future development
• keep notes of which job you applied to
• Customise your CV for the different jobs/sectors.  This is not quite so easy when registering your CV for a range of roles but if this is on a niche job board you can customise it for the particular niche

Finding a job on the internet is a very convenient way to search for jobs, use it well and you will reap the rewards.