Many people think they’ll get their next job by relying on postings on job boards. Many people also buy lottery tickets. How are these activities similar? They both require very little effort or thought; they appeal to our base instincts of reaching for the low hanging fruit; and neither offers a great deal of success. Granted your chances of getting a job from a job board are better than winning the lottery, but not by much.

Time after time I strongly encourage my clients to stop focusing on job boards, but they can’t seem to help themselves. Each day they look and there on a silver platter is the perfect position for them, the one they’ve been looking for all their lives and all they have to do is cut and paste their resume and click submit. But even though they’re a perfect fit, the resume goes into a black hole, they get nothing back but silence.

One reason is that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are applying for that same position whether they’re a perfect fit or not. That’s because it’s so easy to do. The danger is when you don’t hear back it’s a severe blow to the ego, an unnecessary blow when you consider the recipient may not have even seen or read the resume.

If you insist on relying on job boards and see a posting you’re interested in and it gives the name of the company who is advertising the position, go directly to an executive at the company and network your way in the door. If the job is worth having, it’s worth working for.

The myth is that you’ll find your next job by solely relying on job boards. Now don’t get me wrong, some people do find jobs there but not very many. The majority of people, especially at the executive level, will find their next position by networking or using creative strategies that their competition hasn’t thought of or isn’t willing to try.

Don’t take a chance on your career by playing job board roulette, put some time, thought and effort into your job search and I promise you will be rewarded with a position that you’ll prize.

~Linda