Job Boards – Best Practise

Job boards are a fundamental FREE tool in your job search routine. If you are not using them correctly you are not marketing yourself and therefore your details are not being viewed by hundreds, if not thousands of employers and recruitment agencies.

It is therefore important that all ex military jobseekers utilise this powerful resource to its maximum.

Although job boards do not all look the same the majority of them, especially the larger established commercial types, function in the same way. A job board provides the ex military jobseeker with two approaches to your job search routine:

A real time search for live advertised vacancies, along with 24/7 ability to apply online.

The ability to upload your profile and CV in order that employers and recruitment agencies can gain visibility of your details.

The following provides best practise advice on how to upload your CV, remember this is not a 5 second job where once it is done you can forget about it. As you will read, emphasis is placed upon regularly managing your online profile.

The following three sections provide practical advice, before, during and after posting your CV/online jobseeker profile.

• Time. Allocate enough time to comprehensively add your details to each job board. This may take some time but it is worth doing.
• Keep a Register. Keep a register (note book) of all your job seeking activities i.e. jobs applied for, targeted employer list and those job boards you are utilising.
• Your CV. Make sure you have a good comprehensive CV.

• Content. Make sure you complete all the online boxes as comprehensively as you are able, these contain important information about you and your employment preferences and contribute towards your online jobseeker profile.
• Contact Details. It is extremely frustrating for employers/agencies to come across a strong, suitable candidate CV only to find that there are no contact details or the contact details are incorrect. The nature of being ex military does make you sensitive towards disclosing your personal details but do you not want employers & agencies contacting you with opportunities?

• Revisit. Make sure you revisit EVERY job board, logging into your online account at least every 14 days. There is a very valid reason to do this which is as soon as you log back into your account the software thinks ‘this person is still looking for a job as he/she is revisiting their account’ and as a consequence you gain a higher ranking on relevant employer/agency search results. Do not overlook this as it is vital to maintain a good strong presence amongst many hundreds of similar job seekers.
• Amend your Profile. If things change make sure you make the alterations i.e. if you buy a new mobile with a new number make sure you change it across all your online profiles and CVs.