Thermoforming Report

Navigating Job Search Platforms: Tips for Candidates

The résumé statistics are in! Job search platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed are popular channels for guiding you toward many career opportunities. These professional sites can help bridge companies with compatible hires, considering how 87% of companies have problems finding the right hires. From the job seeker’s perspective, these sites help provide visibility to recruiters and HR professionals, expand professional networks, and promote relevant skills.  

You can boost your chances of getting hired by top recruiting companies with a strategic and engaged approach to managing your online presence. Here are a few proven tips on how you can stand out from the crowd to attract recruiters and preferred employers.  

Crafting an Attention-Grabbing Résumé

A polished and organized résumé improves the chances of attracting busy recruiters and employers. You can increase the attention-worthiness of your CVs by including both a streamlined scope and a lot of results… with numbers to back them up. 

Adding relevant skills and specifying the expertise of your professional proficiencies in your résumé can go a long way toward securing a role. General ‘job description’ type information does not provide value. Be specific, highlighting industry knowledge, equipment knowledge, or LSS tools – all pointing back to the results you’ve delivered. 

The strategic use of headers, summarized objectives, and concise bullets can also make your résumés more easily scannable. These steps could make your résumé more appealing since employers and recruiting teams often sort through hundreds of applications before settling on a candidate.  

Most of all, it must be compelling! Put yourself into a hiring manager’s shoes. Does your résumé want you to learn more about how this person delivered those results? If not, tune and adjust. The way I represent the importance of a great résumé is with this metaphor: “Résumés are the key that I get to turn to open the door to an interview.”

Utilizing Keywords and Industry Specific Skills

To assist job search platforms, apply relevant keywords and industry-specific skill sets. Look into companies and roles to understand those words and phrases that keep coming up, then fine-tune your résumé to align with those keywords based on your experience and your desired next career step.  

Begin your keyword research by coming up with a clear description of your target career or role. If you keep it too broad, you won’t find what you are looking for and need to be more specific. If you find yourself hitting a wall, consider starting with a single keyword search on your job search platform and referring to listing results for additional keywords.  

Networking and Engaging with Online Recruiters

Job search platforms make it extremely convenient to start a conversation with a recruiter or potential employer. Most job search platforms support direct messaging features where you can begin a casual discussion with hiring parties to learn more about a specific role or job opening before applying.  

You also have the opportunity to browse an organization’s profile page for reference to the various company roles and positions. Doing so lets you connect with the relevant department representative for more details on a specific opening, clarify expectations, and work out a smoother job application process.  

Showcasing Relevant Skills and Achievements

Promoting relevant skills and accolades in your job search profiles enables hiring parties to locate and contact you when they are actively searching to hire for a role that matches your credentials. Similar to how job seekers rely on strategic keywords to find the perfect employers, recruiters and hiring companies also turn to trending terms to discover the most qualified talent. This must not be undervalued! Don’t get crazy and add every keyword, making your profile seem jumbled and overly hard to read. But, definitely make sure you have a strong profile in place or the algorithms of the various platforms will relegate you to the back of the list. 

Aside from technical skills, you should also promote soft skills that are always highly sought-after. Based on this Forbes article,  a few of the top soft skills are no surprise: communication, problem-solving, creativity, and time management. Soft skills could prove a game-changer when recruiting companies decide between candidates with similar technical experiences and qualifications.  

Researching Companies Before Hiring

It is recommended to conduct thorough research on a company before applying for a given role. Job search platforms serve as a transparent and accessible channel for checking employee testimonials, reviews, and other forms of social proof to assess the culture of a potential workplace. Employee-sourced content can help provide exclusive insights on topics like recent mergers, career development opportunities, and trust levels among management.  

You should also look at other links for a comprehensive company assessment. For instance, you could visit the organization’s blog for references to upcoming events, corporate activities, contributions, and employee involvement.  

This is not easy. It can be very difficult to discern the realities of what is happening at the company and how it may or may not align with your own paradigms and preferences. Do the research ahead of time as already mentioned, but also make sure to invest time preparing for the interview. Formulate plenty of questions ahead of time: from the simple “What is your culture like?” to the deeper ones you learn when you dig into the open role and company like “Why is this role open?” and “What is the attrition rate for exempt level employees?” 

Need further details on navigating the talent war? Check out our recent articles on Attracting & Retaining Top Talent and Standing Out Among the Outstanding.

Wrapping Up

While job search platforms can significantly streamline employment efforts, it is just one tool in your toolbox to utilize. Strategic optimization of your online presence remains crucial. A great résumé that is compelling and highlights both your scope and key results is imperative. Investigate and do your homework on the many opportunities that are available in this market.

Changing jobs is a big deal. It takes time, effort, and energy to do it well!

As your Thermoforming Talent Partner, we represent clients AND candidates! We’re here to help in any and every way possible! We provide hiring strategies, priority candidate searches, job searches, client & candidate introductions, interview tips, résumé facelifts, resignation strategies, and much much more. LET’S STRENGTHEN YOUR SEARCH!