Are you torn between using traditional or digital job search platforms in your job search? Well, we all know that finding employment opportunities isn’t such an easy task. You need to use the best strategies available for you to increase your chance of success, considering the tough competition out there. Traditional job search platforms still provide potential job leads in today’s digital era. On the other hand, their digital counterparts are revolutionizing and taking the job search game to the next level. Now, with both worlds available to you, which one would you rather choose? Understanding what each has to offer can help you decide the approach that suits you best.
Advantages of digital over traditional job search platforms
In this age of technological advancements, almost everything seems to take a digital direction. Job seekers are taking advantage of digital job search platforms to their next employment opportunity. These platforms include social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok, networking platforms such as LinkedIn, video CVs and more. So, what do these platforms have over the old job bulletinboard, for instance?
1. A wider reach
The internet removes geographical limitations and gives you access to global opportunities as well as the ones just around the corner. This allows you to cast your net wider in a way that traditional platforms can’t. You can find and apply for job opportunities from all over the world. In addition to that, employers are turning to job portals to fill positions in their organizations. If you are able to use specific keywords on your resume, your resume stands out when employers make relevant searches. Instead of waiting for candidates to find positions, they can just look through a pool of relevant people.
2. Opportunity to market oneself
Even more interestingly, candidates can promote themselves without a specific job in site. Social media platforms are changing the job search landscape in unprecedented ways. For instance, you can use Instagram to tell the world that you’re a data analyst among other jobs. All you have to do is use your account to showcase your skills, values, professionalism, and experience. You can post photos of yourself in workshops or conferences where you were a keynote speaker with hashtags from those events.
If you are using Facebook or LinkedIn, you can create valuable content that positions you as an authority in your industry. Then engage with brands and key personnel in a subtle way such as commenting appropriately on their posts. This enhances your chances of getting noticed and appealing to potential employers.
3. Ease and convenience
Are you sitting at home right now? Reading this article and maybe applying to jobs. Using digital platforms saves you from printing resumes, looking for “we’re hiring” signs and mailing them to different organizations. Besides eliminating postage costs, there is nothing more convenient than being in front of a computer and sending emails. The click of a mouse and the comfort of a nice armchair and a cup of tea help put you in the right headspace for one of the most important activities of your life. And it saves so much time. For some platforms, you only need to create your profile and set the parameters that you are looking for and job-opening alerts will find you right in your inbox.
Advantages of traditional over digital job search platforms
Before the digital era, people flocked to the classifieds, agencies, and headhunters to look for potential job openings. While it might seem like such avenues can’t yield much, small businesses with no budget for digital marketing still use them to find candidates. Other traditional platforms that you can use include job fairs and cold calling. Networking is also another traditional platform that yields results. Attending industry networking events and asking for referrals from friends and family can lead to the next big opportunity. Moreover, these avenues give you the following advantages over digital platforms.
1. Access to the “hidden job market”
It might surprise you to know that most job openings don’t make it to the digital space. They get filled in the hidden job jobs network through word of mouth process. Hiring talents can be expensive, which is why recruiters aim to keep it at the lowest. This means that they avoid taking the risk of hiring from unfamiliar avenues to limit recruitment mistakes that can be costly. Using employee referrals to find potential candidates is far more secure and less risky. If you want to take advantage of such opportunities, utilizing traditional platforms can be your best bet.
2. A scamfree option
The online space is a wide avenue that comprises different kinds of people. Some malicious people out there posing as potential employers to lure undetected individuals into giving them personal information. They then use the information for their malicious gains. Using traditional job search platforms saves you from such.
3. Less competition
The number of people using the internet to look for jobs is in the millions. It is most likely that you aren’t the only person eyeing that lucrative opportunity that you just saw online. This means that you have a very slim chance of landing that dream job. Traditional methods such as referrals from friends and family can be less competitive and hence have higher chances of getting hired. It will help you stand out compared to the other candidates.
Conclusion
Whether searching for a job actively or passively, deciding the avenue to use can be confusing. However, as seen above, both digital and traditional job search tools come with their own advantages over the other. To increase the chances of success, it is wise to use a combination of both. Just be sure to select carefully the ones that suit your needs.
source: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system
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Author: Ali Neill
As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website’s social media pages.
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