JobsCity.net

Many people probably overlook the Statistics feature on the My Home page. Our tip: DON'T!

Located directly below the "Administration" heading, this JobsCity.net work-hunting feature can help you evaluate clearly how well (or how bad) your job search is going. When you click on that link, it brings you to YOUR VERY OWN job search statistics. The numbers on that page tell you the following things:

• How many times your resume was searched by an employer
• How many times your resume was actually READ by an employer
• How many times you were sent a message or job details by a recruiter
• How many times YOU applied for a job

In analyzing your stats, its important not just to know what each number tells you, but also what a value in each means as compared to another. High numbers don't always mean good stats, especially when you've got a low score in one of them. Here are some tips on reading your statistics and what to do about each one:

Your resume hasn't been searched many times. Most recruiters search resumes on the site through KEYWORDS; so, if your stats tell you its been SEARCHED many times, then your online resume has a lot of keywords that a recruiter normally uses-for instance, IT recruiters normally use "programmer", "engineer", "administrator", etc. However, some recruiters can get picky and type down "awards", "certification" and other keywords that tip them off on academic and professional achievers - so make sure you brush up on your online resume to somehow incorporate other stuff YOU KNOW recruiters in your target industry surely want to read about.

Okay, my resume's been searched many times, but how come it hasn't been read that much? Take note that most of the time, when a recruiter makes an initial General search, your resume is not the only selection JobsCity.net gives them. Recruiters are given a roster of resumes that matched their keyword search, and not all the info on each one is given. Just so you know, once the roster is made, only the following information on each resume is given:

• Your screen name. Now may be a good time to change that funky screen name you use in public chat rooms into a more professional one. Ditch the "demon_sword" moniker for a more corporate, "Peter22." Use a name that projects "clean and safe." Recruiters generally do not find amusing screen names, well, amusing.
• Title. Maybe the reason recruiters don't care to read your resume is because your title doesn't sound anything like what they want to read. Read up on our Resume tips to find out more about glossing over your work title. Also, take note that your title shows only 20 characters long, including spaces, so be brief. Can't remember which field it was? It's the "Position" field when you start making an account; you can find and edit it by clicking "WORK" under "Edit Resume" at "My Home."
• Experience and Salary. Be reasonable. If you haven't much experience, don't ask for a big paycheck-at the very least, choose "FLEXIBLE." Remember that the default setting in salary selection is in US Dollars, so be careful what you ask for.
• Updated. Knowing about this part of the resume titles page could help you a lot in getting your resume read. REMEMBER: the most recently updated and / or newly posted resumes appear first on a list. Thus, if you want your resume to be one of the first to be searched, update it regularly. Update it NOW.
• Data. This is crucial. This is a red bar that shows how much information you've entered on to your online resume. It doesn't matter how much info about you is written on your personal resume (the one you cut-and-pasted into your online resume); what matters is how much information you entered into the JobsCity.net online resume format itself. We designed the fields and tables to make it easier for recruiters to read about you; one of the worst things about a resume (especially online ones) that recruiters hate is incomplete information. A recruiter will not waste time with a resume with little info.

Okay, this'll stump you: my resume gets searched AND read a lot of times, but how come I don't get any messages from recruiters? That simply means your resume fails to impress many recruiters. If you want to know more about how to make a better resume, click here for tips on how to make that resume more impressive.