Careers: Articles - Resume Posting vs. Resume Distribution—Do
YOU Know the Difference?
The electronic age has revolutionized the way job seekers and employers
meet. The marvels of online automation take the volume of resume
traffic to levels unimagined only a few years ago. With services
to job seekers expanding continually, it’s important to understand
the different options available to increase the exposure of your
resume to potential employers and recruiters.
Two such services are Resume Posting and Resume Distribution.
Do you know the difference between them? Let me explain:
1. Resume Posting
This is a service where job seekers post their resumes to a job
board for paid subscriber employers and recruiters to find. This
is a passive approach in that the employer or recruiter must find
you within the resume database. They usually find you by calling
up resumes via key words. The chances of their finding you depend
greatly on your including all the appropriate key words in your
resume.
This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by
those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to
access the resumes. Years ago, when Monster and other similar job
search boards were fairly new, I was a headhunter (rather than a
resume writer as I am now). It cost me thousands of dollars just
to look at resumes posted on one job board. So you can imagine what
it must cost today! My point is, when you post your resume to an
online resume posting service, not every employer or recruiter will
find you, only those with the huge recruiting budgets. And that
leaves out a good part of your target market.
2. Resume Distribution
This is actually opposite of a posting service. With a resume distribution,
the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified
employers and/or recruiters to email his/her resume to. This service
does cost the job seeker a fee, usually anywhere from $45 to several
hundred. The advantages of a resume distribution over a posting
are:
- It is a proactive strategy. You don't have to wait to be found.
- You have more control over who receives your resume.
- You can control how many employers/recruiters you contact—several
hundred or several thousand—all at once.
- It is very quick and efficient. You submit your resume once
and reach your entire targeted audience of employers and/or recruiters.
The quality of the service depends on the quality of the database
of employers/recruiters the service maintains. Make sure the distribution
service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume.
At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter
database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the
service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent
out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match
your employment criteria.
Let me caution you, for optimum resume distribution or posting
effectiveness you'll want to make sure your resume is in tip-top
shape. If you are not currently getting the response rate from your
resume that you'd like, using a resume distribution service will
only be marginally helpful, as it will merely be distributing a
sub-standard resume to a larger group of people.
Both services, resume posting and resume distribution, are valuable
strategies for your job search. Don't be turned off by the fact
that one is free and the other you must pay for. The money spent
on a good quality resume distribution will repay you over and over
again with valuable job leads and introductions to influential recruiters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deborah Walker, CCMC
Resume Writer ~ Career Coach
To see resume format samples and read more job-search tips visit
www.AlphaAdvantage.com
Email: Deb@AlphaAdvantage.com
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