Tips for an online job search

With the proliferation of job boards and the rise of the Google culture, it can be tough to figure out the ins and outs of the online job search writes Barry Whelan.

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With the option to search by keyword, location, industry, company or all of the above at once, it’s hard to know which query will return the best search results for you.

In the absence of knowing the best method for getting targeted results, many people default to what they do know about their job search i.e. the title of the position they’re looking for.  While searching for “sales representative” or “category manager” may seem like a good way to get direct hits on the jobs you want, searching by job title actually eliminates a lot of positions that may be exactly what you’re looking for.

This is because job titles are often not the same across different companies and industries. For example a category manager can be one company’s head of buying department and another’s space planning manager. Oftentimes the job descriptions might be exactly the same, but the positions may have different titles.  

In order to get the largest number of relevant search results, try one of these methods instead.

1. Search by keyword

Instead of simply searching by a job title, develop a list of keywords that represent both the type of job you’re looking for and the work you’re qualified to do. The list should be comprised of functions you’ve performed at previous jobs, duties you’d like to perform at your next job, as well as relevant skills and experience.

For example, if you’re looking for a sales position, your keyword search terms may include:
• Sales representative
• Sales executive
• KPIs
• Business Development
• Area sales
• Target drive
• OTE
• Business degree

Instead of searching the term “sales representative,” use the terms above or terms that relate to the role you’re looking for to find job results that match what you’re looking for.

2. Combine keywords with Boolean search terms

While searching by keyword will bring up a broad range of search results, combining keywords to create a “Boolean search” will allow you to narrow down your results.  

Boolean search is actually a simple way to combine search terms in order to form strings of keywords. They’re surprisingly easy to conduct once you understand the basics.

The basics:

• Put quotes around terms you want to keep together. For example “Targets and KPIs.” This will ensure that your results are returned with listings that contain this specific phrase, not just the words targets and KPIs somewhere in the listing.
• Combine words using plus (+) and minus (-) signs. For example, if you’re searching for a job where you can put your business degree to good use while working on space planning languages, your search may be:  “Business degree” + “space planning.”
• To make your search even easier, Boolean searches also enable you to search root words. Meaning you won’t have to conduct separate searches for “manager”, “managers” and “managing.”  Instead, type in the root of the word, with an asterisk, to search all forms of the root word.

3. Try an advanced search

If you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for, or you’re interested in a job function, but not a specific industry (i.e. an administrative position in any sector), start with a broad search — you can always narrow it down as you figure out what you want and don’t want.

On most job boards, for example, you can type in a general keyword, like “administrative” and then narrow it down through a variety of search categories. If you realise you’d prefer to work as an administrative assistant in a medical office or at a school, for example, you can specify this in the advanced search.

Similarly, if you are only interested in jobs that pay over €50,000, you can enter in your salary requirements as well.
The more fields you enter values for, the fewer, but more targeted, your search results will be.

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