We cannot label 1 of the job boards as the best or I can say we do not have a job board which just offers a job opportunity & you get a job at an employer of your choice. It is important to plan & decide on a strategy before a job search.
My suggestion would be
- Decide on your job priority: is it compensation, location, profile, or brand. Have a personal ranking mechanism.
- Identify your core strengths which will match the job profile that interests you.
- You should take up some certifications/projects/courses/quizzes which support your competency. For example: If I am looking at being a translator. I may choose to take up recognized courses relating to a specific foreign language.
- Know your career objective.
- Make a resume & cover letter ready. Ensure that it highlights your strengths, academics & achievements, etc.
- Ensure that your resume is visible. Not at just one job portal but other platforms also.
You may look at the following options instead of following 1 Job portal
- The most firms have careers portal – You can create an account & it allows you to upload your resume, cover letter through this account you can view current job openings in the firm & apply to your job of interest. Some career portal has the provision to instantly update you through emails if there are job opportunities that match your skillset.
- Employee reference is the most reliable & frequently used source of hiring. If you have some Friends/Relatives/Batchmates/Seniors who are currently working with the employer of your choice. You may request them to share your resume with their respective HR representative.
- You can personally visit the employer & drop a copy of your resume.
- You can create/update your profile on Linkedin, join groups on jobs it would also update on you on current job openings, plus you can join & create your profile on various job boards like Naukri, monster, etc.
- You should ensure that all your social media profiles are in synch – i.e all profiles should be well updated – Including Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
- Newspapers may not be a good idea unless there are specific for only jobs. Most organizations avoid this as a source as it involves huge costs.
- You can participate in competitions organized by various employers like Quizzes, Marathons & Trekking, etc. look at these as a means to network.
- You may also join professional groups for e.g – NHRD (for HR’s), Young Indians by CII, etc depending on your profession.
The idea is to reach out to the employer in many ways & not restrict yourself to just one source.
How to Apply on Online JOB Portal Website?
I suggest you apply all the jobs related to your profile on job sites, like Naukri, monster, times, etc.
You may already applied on an online job portal website but follow my below suggestions, may helpful.
1. Every day upload your resume to the job sites. If there are no changes in your resume also, just upload the same resume again, at least 2 days once.
Some websites consider freshness of resume (uploaded date) in their algorithm, so your resume may come to the top position and visibility of your profile improves, so recruiters have high chances to view your profile if it matches their requirement.
2. Always try to apply to a job posting immediately. Try to get your application in the Top 20.
3. To get into the top 20 application list, always login to all job sites three times a day, morning, afternoon, night, and apply all jobs related to you.
4. Please note, in job sites, check the posted date of job, say if it is one month old then probably many people already applied for that role, say 1000 people applied, now you also applied for that role after 30 days, and your resume queue position is 1001.
The recruitment team does not check all these 1000+ applications for 1 or 2 vacancies. Sometimes they may check but its pure luck or they may use algorithms or online filters to remove non-related profiles. If you applied in the last then your profile position also follows the same rank.
Say, 300 people’s profile matches in the total 1001 applicants as per their (HR) requirements, then your profile will be in the last if they consider the applied date. This also plays a huge role during profile selection.
5. So, after searching for the job, filter the jobs based on POSTED DATE then you will get all fresh job postings, and apply for the related job profiles immediately. Do this 3 times a day. You may get updates on job postings in your email but do not rely on job portal website email updates. These are not real-time and may show older posted job profiles too.
6. Some job sites may show your application number after submitting the resume, or some may show before. You can get some idea about your application position. If your application has a large queue then you are late and chances are very very very low. So always apply immediately to get your resume reviewed by recruiters.
7. Do not pay to job sites, it’s not useful much. Do not go for paid resume services.
8. Do not look for a specific location, industry, job role. Just accept whatever comes first if you are looking for jobs for a long time. (or a short time, depends on your needs).
9. Do not lose patience, apply 3 times every day, at least 30 days, you will definitely get calls. Make sure your application in the top 20 list so chances are very high to get calls. If HR mobile number or email available in job posings then contact them directly.
10. Update your resume. Study all basics again and you must be ready for the interview at any time. Always prepare for the interview before getting the calls from the recruitement teams. Many people starts preparing after receiving the calls or before the interview. Avoid this common mistake. Be confident.
*** DO NOT PAY TO ANYONE *** Almost 99.999999% are fake who take money from candidates.
Online Job Portals
The recruitment industry is fragmented anywhere in the world. The reason is that the recruiters want to find the best matching candidates no matter where they are. Thus recruiters post jobs on various sites. Similarly, the candidates want to find the right jobs that suit their criteria no matter which job boards they are listed in.
It wouldn’t do justice if I just list down the websites. For example, Naukri may not be the best place for finding an internship or startup job. Therefore let me divide the job sites into a few categories and list a few well-known players.
Pure Play
Traditional job boards list jobs posted directly by recruiters. Top ones are (in no specific order):
Job Aggregator
The aggregators are job search engines. They crawl jobs posted on other job boards, company websites, etc. Advantage: Will have better coverage. Examples: Indeed, Simply Hired, Careerjet.co.in, Pathway.ai, etc.
Managerial Jobs
Focuses only on high-level management jobs. Examples: headhonchos.com and iimjobs.com
Social Network
Good for passive candidates. There is no competitor for LinkedIn at the moment. But Facebook is also working on it.
Niche Job Sites
These are focused on specific skills set or domains. For example, AngelList focuses on startups, Hasjob, Stackoverflow Jobs, and TechGig focus on technical jobs.
Challenge Based Job Sites
These websites pose competition to candidates and make the results available to companies. For example HackerRank, HackerEarth, and CodeFights. Kaggle only has competition as well as a job board.
Internship
Jobs like Internshala and Letsintern focus only on internships.
All the best
Authors: Geet R, Rakshith Begane, Bharadwaj
Very much thanks for such a post in these lockdown times.