How To Get Hired In The Era Of High-Tech Talent Sourcing Tools

Gillian Kelly is an award-winning resume writer, career coach and the Head of Talent Marketing at Outplacement Australia.

There is a shift disrupting hiring practices and it’s requiring a new skill for job searches.

In the past, the hirer advertised an opening and you — and 250 or so other people — responded. Sometimes the hirer got lucky and a candidate with the right skills applied. Other times there was no one suitable. Sometimes there was someone qualified, but in the process of skim-reading all the resumes, the hirer missed them. In short, the process wasn’t ideal.

A lot of organizations have been looking for a better way and the answer for some has become the proactive sourcing of potential talent. Many hirers recognize that new sourcing technologies now enable them to go to market and find quality candidates in diverse locations at a speed once unimaginable.

Technology’s Impact On Sourcing Diverse Talent

Previously, sourcing talent was time-intensive and achieved through the manual creation of boolean search strings entered by talent sourcing experts to find applicants. This meant sourcing was typically only relied upon for roles where talent may be hard to find or the position warranted the effort required.

Modern talent acquisition sourcing solutions are changing this. Now, with just a few job details entered in fields, such as job title, location, skills and competencies, these new technologies scour millions of data points across the web, social media platforms and online databanks to generate a list of matched candidates ready for the hirer to appraise and approach, thereby delivering what was once weeks of talent sourcing work within hours.

According to a survey by Gem, the benefits of sourcing are so apparent that sourcing tools and technologies were talent leaders’ No. 1 priority investment in 2021.

“Jobseeker Not Found” — The Anonymity Risk

What does this mean to you, the jobseeker? The bottom line is your digital footprint is growing in importance.

If you want to generate visibility with target hirers, having the know-how to safely and strategically create and manage your online personal brand is invaluable. This goes beyond just having an ad hoc presence on social media. Not only does your digital footprint need to exist, but to bring benefit, it needs to be carefully designed to align with the roles you are seeking.

Tips To Increase Your Chances Of Being Found In A Talent Search

There are many ways to enhance your online presence. These include creating optimized profiles on key professional platforms, building your thought leadership, visibility and authority by sharing insights, articles and knowledge online and participating in relevant talent communities.

Start with a clear understanding of your goals. What do you want to achieve? Who is your target audience and what keywords would they use to describe their ideal candidates? Consider job titles, locations, skills, industries and competencies.

Audit your existing digital footprint. Do you come up in a Google search, and what are your search results telling the reader? Are they helpful or damaging to achieving your goals? Where else is your professional profile visible to your target hirers?

Have a presence where hirers are searching. If your goal is to catch the attention of potential hirers, consider where they may be searching for talent. Do they have a private talent community or are they part of a talent acquisition and engagement platform where multiple companies have a presence? Do they search freelance platforms or use social media? LinkedIn is a common hunting ground for many hiring and sourcing professionals, along with online resume databanks. Identify where specialists in your field have a presence — this may be GitHub for developers or Behance for designers. Hirers usually go where the talent hangs out, so it’s important to grow your networks and brand in these areas.

Build social proof of your capability. Think about what people see online — does it enhance your authority and credibility? Build impact through social proof with recommendations and positive reviews and proof of knowledge/skills through articles, videos, media contributions, work samples or a career portfolio.

Evolve your profile content strategically, integrating new skills and search keywords. Your career evolves, and so does the needs of the market, so you need to reflect these changes in your online brand. Revise as your goals shift. 

Above all else, protect yourself. Building visibility online should be done with the utmost care. Be wary of providing personal data online. Having a professional presence is helpful, but exposing yourself to privacy and security risks is not. If in doubt, don’t do anything until you have thoroughly checked the security and privacy settings.

In the future of work, a strong online brand will help hirers find you. The right actions today will contribute to your visibility and credibility and could lead to opportunities tomorrow.

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