It used to be that you found jobs ads in the newspaper, and set in you hard-copy resume, and waited for a phone call (that might not come). These days, while there are still jobs advertised in newspapers, it just seems so much easier to use the online services. The top players in online position advertisement in Australia are:
There are also some job sites dedicated to government jobs:
A new option has emerged now, in the form of more interactive online tools for networking and building a personal brand. A personal brand, to me, is simply the identity you have for yourself online. In many ways, the best personal brand to have is to just be yourself, and be careful of your behaviour.
One useful resource for using new services to find jobs is rockthejob.com. As they say, it is best to be honest about who you are (to an extent, don’t reveal everything), rather than trying to create separate identities. The site creates videos featuring interviews with various people knowledgeable in the area of online promotion and job hunting. It certainly is easier to convey a information in a video, but it can be quite superficial information, and requires a suitable environment to view the video (headphones, Flash).
Managing the information about you available online can be very tricky – from people who have the same name, to what others post about you, often you might have little or no control over potentially damaging web sites. One way to overcome this could be to make sure your network includes many different area, so that if something does find it’s way into Google that you don’t like, you have someone you can talk to that has some control over the content.
The key issue is that offline and online identities naturally blur, and it is best to manage your overall appearance, than segment different aspects.
