Do you remember the old stereotypical picture of a job seeker sitting around the kitchen table on a Sunday morning circling jobs of interest in the local newspaper’s classified ads section? That image is replaced today by that of a millennial glancing down at a smartphone looking for open positions on any number of competing job search apps.
Job searching has gone mobile. The challenge for the app designers has been to distill the essential information and search capabilities of regular internet sites to be useful to users when they are on the go. They have come a long way, and much functionality is available to the mobile user.
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A simple search for “job search” in Apple’s app store comes up with a whole host of apps, including the expected ones from established sites like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor and LinkedIn. Then, there are the apps that purport to help you build your resume like PathSource’s Resume: CV Builder and Designer, Resume Star’s Pro CV Maker and many others. LinkedIn alone has multiple apps: the regular LinkedIn, LinkedIn Job Search and LinkedIn Groups.
It is easy to use these apps to find, save and apply for the job openings of interest to you. They can send you notifications when new jobs are posted that fulfill your search criteria. And when you are back at your desk you can easily access the opportunities you’ve saved on the full site on your computer.
Apps allow you to either upload your resume, or walk you through how to build and store it in the app so that with a tap you can simply send it off to any of the jobs advertised on their site.
To be sure, mobile apps let you take your job search anywhere. It’s an open question, however, whether by doing so they’ll help you end up where you really want to be: in a new job. Here’s why:
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Convenience can lead to sloppiness. It is easy to make mistakes when you are tapping on a small screen and don’t have the benefit of sitting at your desk and carefully reviewing what you are saying, how you are saying it and how it will appear to the company where you are seeking consideration. Even when you review your resume, chances are slim that you’ll be able to catch all the mistakes that you would easily spot on a larger screen and when you are less distracted than you might be when you are out and about.
And, there is no substituting a full-size screen when you are trying to format an important document like a resume that should be perfect to the letter for the reader.
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Enter the big black hole. Companies encourage you to submit your resume online, and apps make it easy to do so. The problem is this: When you do so your document goes directly into the employer’s applicant tracking system, or ATS, also commonly known at the “big black hole.”
That’s great for the company, but not so for candidates, as you have no way to assure that the resume will even be read by a human being. As companies acquire lots of resumes, the chances for them to find an acceptable candidate improve, while the odds for you being the one they choose continually get worse and worse.
Mobile is king these days, and you are wise to use the apps that will help you most. However, you should be smart about it. Search for new openings when you are in between things and on the go. Save opportunities to review later. Then, when you get home, continue your due diligence. Research the companies in which you have an interest. And take the time to do good, old-fashioned networking to get the inside info and the connections you need to make a personal appearance and get the job.
Happy hunting!
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Job Searching When You Are on the Go originally appeared on usnews.com
