Most of us who utilize the Internet — especially those of us who advertise online — are familiar with SEO. Search engine optimization. Using tools to increase the visibility and prominence of the information we’re seeking to make available.
Few applicants and candidates realize that some of these same techniques will help to increase the visibility and prominence of one’s resume, expertise, or credentials. So I’m offering a multi-part series of quick tips for prospective employees who want to be noticed by recruiters and other employment professionals.
Let’s start with the most obvious resource you have as an applicant or candidate: your resume. Most recruiters search a large internal database of resumes, as well as one or more job-board databases (such as careerbuilder, monster, or hotjobs). Many of these applicant “pools” are national in scope, but most of the jobs are extremely local. So recruiters commonly use contact information to narrow the pool to candidates for whom these opportunities would be a reasonable commute.
One option for the recruiter is to extract from the pool based on a range of zip codes. Another option is to search by the relevant area codes of phone numbers.
That said, I’ve noticed an increasing trend among candidates to include less, rather than more, contact information. Sometimes this is for the confidentiality of one’s search (in case our current employer uses these resources). Equally as often, this is due to concerns about privacy and possible identity theft if the information reaches the wrong hands. These are legitimate concerns.
You may want to consider providing your zip code even if you don’t provide your complete street address. Similarly, you may want to consider providing at least one phone number including its area code, especially if its area code accurately reflects your geographic residence. In addition, if you have an account on careerbuilder, monster, or yahoo that you created prior to your current employment search, double-check to be sure that the zip code and the area code of your contact information in this account matches what you’ve provided in your resume.
This helps to balance your goals of keeping information private and confidential, while also making you a little more visible to those people whom you do want to reach!
Tips, part 2 (coming soon): abbreviations.
