Post to the bigs, blast to the 'secret job market'

© Copyright Roy Miller, All Rights Reserved.

Should you post your resume, or should you blast it?

I don't want to insult your intelligence, so I'll insult mine. I used to think posting and blasting were essentially the same. Nope! So let's start by defining terms.

Resume posting

Resume posting is putting your resume on a job site like Monster.com.

You can find plenty of examples by Googling "resume posting service" or something similar. These services will post your resume to multiple job sites in minutes. Posting to them all yourself could take at least 30 minutes per site, or almost a full work week. Likely longer. Then you have to maintain all your memberships.

With resume posting services, you usually have to set up and account and fill out a form to post your resume. Then recruiters and employers can search the database to find you as a candidate.

When you post your resume, make sure it's excellent. Also make sure it contains the important keywords that'll excite potential employers when they're searching resumes in the job site's database. There will be tens of thousands of resumes in there (easily). Standing out in a crowd that size can be tough.

Resume blasting

Resume blasting is sending your resume (and cover letter too) to potentially thousands of recruiters and potential employers in a database usually maintained by a company that can blast your resume for you.

To blast your resume, you usually have to sign up with a blasting service and give them a resume (and ideally a cover letter) to send out. Most I've seen have you fill out a form to get that done, or send a resume in Word format.

When you blast your resume, make sure both your resume and cover letter are enticing enough for recruiters to read them. Recruiters in the database are genuinely interested in getting your resume, but you must make it easy for a recruiter to read and understand your resume. If it presents them with problems (such as a font that's too small), they'll likely pass you by. You have seconds to make your impression.

You also want to make sure you choose a reputable blaster that won't spam every recruiter on the planet with your resume. They hate that! And it does you little good.