Job Hunting in 2013 (Online Only)

By Jack Molisani, Fellow

It used to be that when I (a recruiter) received a job to fill, I would post it online and get 20 applicants, half of whom were more or less qualified, and then I would submit three to six applicants and let the client decide who was the best fit of seniority vs. salary/bill rate.

These days I post a job opening, and I get zero qualified applicants. Zero.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in the information industry (at the time of this writing) is 7.7%. Yet when I post a job, I get zero qualified applications. How can this be?

I have a theory: People fear if they change jobs and there is a layoff in the new company, they will be the first to go because they are the newest hire. So people are thankful that they have a job—any job—and are digging in and staying put, no matter how unfulfilling their job might be.

So what does that have to do with members of the 7.7% who are looking for work? Fewer people are voluntarily changing jobs, so there are fewer job openings for you, the unemployed job hunter.

Another anecdote: A friend of mine in New Orleans recently posted an opening for a mail room clerk on the Internet. He received 65 applications in the first day alone!

While this might at first blush conflict with my first statement about receiving zero applicants for my job postings, keep in mind that I said zero qualified applicants. I normally post the exact job requirements in my posting, but I still get many people who are applying for any job they see posted.

This tells me there are still people plenty of people looking for a job (any job), but these people are not in the technology sector.

So what’s the lesson that you, the technical communicator, can glean from that anecdote?

Companies know that if they post a job online they will get swamped with unqualified applicants, so they will try to fill the job without posting it.

There are jobs out there—not as many as before 2008, but there are still jobs. However, the jobs aren’t being posted on Monster.com or the STC.org job board as often as they used to be. Instead, they are being filled by personal referrals. So your best bet for finding a job in the United States is your professional network. (Editor’s note: For more information about finding a job using your professional network, see Jack Molisani’s article "Job Hunting in a Recession," Intercom, September/October 2008.)

So what do you do if you aren’t Joe Networker and don’t have as many Facebook friends as Scott Abel? Give up and become a cashier at K-Mart?

Mais non, mon ami!

This is when you have to get clever about your job search. Very, very clever.

I was talking with an STC member once who complained she was having absolutely no luck finding a job. When I asked her what she was doing to find a job, she said, "I’ve posted my resume on Monster.com and DICE.com and every other job site!"

I’m sorry, but posting your resume online in the hopes that someone will call is not job finding. It is job waiting. There’s a difference.

Similarly, applying for jobs you see online by sending your résumé to jobs@BlackHoleNeverToBeHeardFromAgain.com is not being causative over your search—it’s being a job-hunting victim, hoping someone, somewhere will fish your résumé out of a sea of resumes and say, "Yes, this is the one!"

I am far too impatient to play the "job waiting" or "job victim" game. I assume you are as well.

Back in the 1980s, I wanted to learn how to use the latest online help authoring tools, but I didn’t have the money to buy them. So, I proactively reached out to the leading tool vendors at the time—Microsoft (MS Word), WexTech Systems (Doc-to-Help), and BlueSky Software (RoboHelp)—and said, "I’m doing a review of online help authoring tools for an upcoming issue of TechniScribe, Orange County STC’s newsletter. Can you send me are review copy?" And they did!

I did, in fact, write the review article. But I also used the trial copies to create multiple samples for my portfolio and, as a result, landed my first contract writing online help for a leading consumer electronics company. (I then used the money from the contract to buy my own copies of all those tools.) The point is this—when I was unemployed and broke and wanted to increase my marketability, I didn’t say, "I can’t afford that" (victim thinking); I said, "How can I afford that?" I was proactive and clever and found a way to get the skills I needed to get a job.

Another example: A few months ago, a local STC friend and former client called to say her entire department was being laid off (they were moving the jobs from California back to the company headquarters in Texas). I scheduled some time to give her entire department a crash course in finding work in the current economy.

Here is one of the suggestions I offered:

I hate waiting. Specifically, waiting for someone to please, please, please offer me a job. Bah! I’m going to go find one and they are going to be happy to have me and pay me handsomely to get me!

Here is just one idea of what you can do to be proactive (and clever) in your job search. Make a list the top 10 companies you would like to work for, then call the documentation managers at each of those companies and say, "I’m writing an article for [my local STC newsletter] on hiring trends in [whatever city you’re in], and I’m interviewing the documentation managers from leading companies in the area. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

I would then ask very pertinent questions, such as, "What trends do you see in the future of technical communication? What skills will writers need to keep up with those trends? Do you plan on expanding you full-time staff or temporary work force in the next six months in response?"

And then end with, "Would you like a copy of the article when it comes out and if so, to what email address should you send it?"

Listen, dear reader. If you had done this, you would now know 1) who will be hiring in your area, 2) what skills will be in demand, and 3) the name and contact information of all the hiring managers!

How easy would it to be to then add, "By the way, my contract will be up in June. Might I send you my resume so you have it when you’re ready to fill one of your positions?"

Of course, you still have to write the article and get it published. But I have yet to see a chapter newsletter editor turn away a pertinent article on hiring trends.

I admit I may be over-simplifying things for the purpose of making a point in the space I have available in this article, but that doesn’t reduce the validity of my point:

In the current economy you can’t just post your résumé or apply for a job, then wait for someone to call. You must be proactive in your job search, be clever about finding jobs that aren’t posted online, and initiate personal communication with the hiring manager, either directly or via your professional network.

You must use every tool, trick, and tactic in your arsenal to find where the jobs are and who is hiring, and communicate how you perfectly match what the hiring manager is looking for.

Ready to go out and find your perfect job?

Okay, start!

About the Author

Jack Molisani (JackMolisani@ProspringStaffing.com) is an STC Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing (http://ProspringStaffing.com), an agency specializing in staff and contract technical writers. He also produces the LavaCon Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies (http://Lavacon.org). Follow him on Twitter @JackMolisani.