Resume is ready, now what?

So you finished your resume, it has been reviewed, and you are ready to send it out right? Maybe! Before applying for any position and sending your resume out I think you should check a few things.

Personal Social Networks:
Hiring managers are checking social networking sites before calling a potential candidate for an interview. Check your privacy settings on MySpace, Facebook, and any other social networking site you use. Can someone that is not your friend see pictures from that crazy party you went to last weekend? Do you want anyone that is NOT your friend (approved) seeing anything personal about you? I keep my Facebook and Myspace completely private to anyone that is not my friend. I use these strictly for personal use.

Professional Social Networks:
Now these are the ones you are going to want to create and let the public see. The main site you definitely want to have is LinkedIn. Believe it or not this was one of the first social networking sites and is older than Facebook. So why don't you have an account? Check my profile out and add me if you know me. LinkedIn works a little different than personal social networking sites. For instance you want connections with people you really know, worked with, went to school with etc. Then you want recommendations from them. For more on this use Google.

Now that you have differentiated your personal social networks from professional social networks and set the correct privacy, Google yourself. Make sure that what employers might find about you is what you want them too.

Finding jobs to apply for:
Now that you have your resume ready and social networks in check you may begin searching for job's to apply for. This part is kind of tricky. First you need to identify what title or job function you are going after. Be careful of choosing something above your criteria. For example if you have never managed a help desk before a Help Desk Manager in a bigger company might be out of reach. This goes for manager level jobs as well. So where can you search for jobs? One of my favorite sites is Dice.com because it is aimed at IT. Another good site is Monster.com. On these sites you can create profiles with cover letters and everything so applying becomes easier. Be careful not to get lazy and use the same resume and cover letter for more than one application. Remember you want to tweak your resume for each position. These sites also allow you to setup daily emails with new job postings.

Using those job search sites is helpful, however if you want to work in a certain geographic area or know the company you want to work for, go directly to their site. Most sites will provide a Career link with the open positions they have. Apply straight from the website. I have gone to job fairs where they won't even take your resume and send you directly to their site to apply. South Florida has many positions available and if you want to work down here search some local employment sites (the Herald?).

Finding a job is not a one day thing. Career services will tell you that for every $10k you want a year you need to be on the job search for a month. So if you are looking for $60k a year, that is 6 months of hunting. Good luck to all and please continue to follow the FIU MIS Club for job postings and other related material to MIS.

Till next time,
Jorge Orchilles