Searching for jobs online can sometimes feel like you're sending your résumé into a void, unclear if it will even reach a hiring manager's inbox.
Yet, using a company website or a job site like CareerBuilder or LinkedIn are some of the most common ways people apply for new roles. About 77% of applicants used company's websites to apply and 58% used job sites, according to January data from résumé builder Zety.
Especially at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and looking for work, job seekers will need any advantage they can find.
Insider spoke with executives from four of the largest job search sites — Glassdoor, Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn — to get their best advice.
Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Blake Barnes, vice president of jobs at LinkedIn, says there are simple tweaks you can make to your LinkedIn profile to help recruiters find you on the platform.
Make sure you're open to new opportunities. Then, turn on "Open to Work" on your LinkedIn profile. Reaching a recruiter on the platform is one of the best ways to get an opportunity. It doubles the chance that you get a reach out.
The second thing is to spotlight your skills. You can list both hard and soft skills on your LinkedIn profile, and these can be used by recruiters to help them find you on the platform. There's a lot of tools we give people to help them find the right talent — filters and search tools that help them search by skills. You're more likely to be discovered by recruiters.
Make sure you highlight your current experience on the profile. Keep your job title in the headline, something that recruiters would search for and many people would recognize. For example in the tech space, instead of saying something like "data ninja," say "data analyst." Recruiters also use these keywords and filters.
-Blake Barnes, VP of Jobs, LinkedIn
Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster, says job seekers should emphasize their transferable skills and how they've demonstrated them in the past when applying for a new role.
In 2021, it's going to be even more important that job seekers focus on their transferable skills and effectively communicate them to employers.
Our annual future of work survey showed that recruiters are looking for candidates to explain marketable skills more clearly. Our global results show they're also looking for dependability, teamwork/collaboration, problem solving, and flexibility.
Job seekers can illustrate these soft skills by providing examples. Recruiters often rely on past behavior to predict future behavior by asking behavioral-based interviewing questions such as "talk about a time when you were dependable."
Be prepared for these questions in an interview by thinking about a situation in the past that demonstrated your ability to be depended upon. It's important to describe the situation (What happened?), behaviors and communications you demonstrated to showcase dependability (How were you dependable? What did you say and do?) and share the outcome (What was the result?).
-Vicki Salemi, career expert, Monster
Christian Sutherland-Wong, the CEO of Glassdoor, says you need to understand what matters most to you before you can begin your search.
It all has to begin with knowing what matters most to you.
For some people a job is just a means to an end. To other people, it's something they're passionate about. It's part of a long-term springboard — they'd almost be willing to work without pay. It's the culture that matters. It all begins with figuring this out and figuring out what type of company and job you're going to thrive in and going to be happy in.
Then, make sure you do the right research. In today's day and age, you wouldn't buy anything without researching it first. Job search has to be the same. A job is one of the most important decisions you're going to make in your life.
-Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO, Glassdoor
Sasha Yablonovsky, president of CareerBuilder, says job seekers should showcase their unique skills when looking for a new role.
For starters, we are seeing a pivot to skills-based hiring as job seekers look to fill in-demand jobs in growing industries. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, nearly 84% of respondents said they would be willing to take a job outside of their current or most recent industry or role.
This shift means it's important for job seekers to lead with their transferable skills, not solely previous experience, to help make them a more desirable candidate.
If you have experienced unemployment this year due to pandemic-related closures, you are not alone. In your résumé and your cover letter, tell the potential employer if you lost a job due to COVID-19, and show off the skills, experience and knowledge you have gained during your period of unemployment.
Use a job site that allows you to customize your profile. Include your social media profiles and professional accomplishments and store multiple versions of resumes that are tailored to specific roles or to highlight certain skillsets. A detailed profile can make it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to proactively find you.
-Sasha Yablonovsky, president, CareerBuilder