No. 1 Complaint: Internet Job Hunting Doesn't Work

The majority of my job-hunting clients share a common complaint: The Internet Doesn't Work.

Regardless of whether they are career newbies, career changers, or experienced professionals - they are all frustrated by the lack of results they get from job postings. And with good reason. Although hard numbers are difficult to come by, several surveys have confirmed that only about 5% of job hunters find new jobs through Internet job postings. (Networking or personal contacts still garner the best results with 50-60% of job hunters finding jobs through this well-established route.)

So if you are one of those people who are spending the majority of your job search time in Cyberspace the likelihood of success isn't all that great. To put the numbers in perspective: Monster.com estimates that it gets 35,000 resumes a day and has boasted publicly that, since its inception, it has received 11,000,000 resumes. (If you aren't good with numbers that's 11 million.) While that may be great for the Monster.com business, it isn't good news for individual job hunters; it makes it nearly impossible for individuals to get employers and/or recruiters to notice them.

To be more effective, job hunters should use Internet listings as part of a comprehensive job search rather than rely on it to be some kind of magic bullet. While it's still a good idea to check out general job search sites (Indeed.com and Worktree.com are my favorites), many job hunters get better results with industry specific sites. (There's a great set of links at Quintcareers.com/indres.html)

But don't get lured into spending all your time there (and then complain that it isn't working.) If you really want to use the Internet effectively in your job search, use it to do company research, visit company websites, apply directly to companies that interest you, and generate networking leads.

This brings me to another cautionary note. While it's tempting to use sites like Linked in and Facebook to meet your networking needs, this also does not constitute a complete networking strategy. Like it or not, there's still no substitute for real face time with real people.