Trials & Triumphs of Career Transition v.11 - Keeping Marlie Realistic, Organized and Optimistic when Applying to Online Postings

When most candidates start the process of looking for a new job, they jump to their computers to begin researching and applying to online job postings. It is natural to want to know what kind of job opportunities are out there, and exploring online resources is a great first step in understanding what the job market in their particular industry is currently bearing and what skills the employers in their field are looking for. Preliminary market research like this can be very helpful during the résumé-development stage as well, enabling them to add key skills and relevant keywords to it.

During her work with us through the outplacement process, Marlie was no different. In fact, as soon as the first draft of her résumé was completed, she created new accounts with Indeed.com and ziprecruiter.com, among others, so she could start exploring her future career opportunities.

Until we met her, Marlie had worked as an agriculture specialist with a food manufacturing firm in Winnipeg. During her online research, she was excited to see a variety of job postings in the food sector that could suit her well. Many offered hybrid or remote work options, which greatly expanded her potential opportunities with organizations based outside of Winnipeg.

As she got to work submitting applications to her list of the best, most applicable postings, she started to feel quite overwhelmed. As she continued, she realized that applying to online postings wasn’t as easy as she originally thought. She had assumed that applying to these vacancies was merely a matter of uploading her résumé and quickly moving on to the next posting. But as she found out, not all job postings require the same information. Some insist on the inclusion of a cover letter. Some only accept PDF (or other specific formats) résumés. And others require additional information, such as salary expectations. In addition, not all job boards are built the same. Some are easier to use than others and allow for the efficient uploading of a cover letter and résumé simultaneously while others forced her to break down, copy, and paste her résumé details into their customized forms, some of which didn’t directly apply to the information Marlie had to offer. What she originally thought would be an easy process became a confusing and demotivating one.

After discussing her frustrations with her CMS program coach, Marlie changed her mind set on applying online. Instead of assuming it would be an easy and efficient process, she resigned herself to the fact that applying to job opportunities, online or not, was a job in itself and that each must be carefully thought through.

Her program coach encouraged her to set realistic daily goals when developing customized online applications. Spending the time to develop up to ten tailored applications per day felt like a full-time job! Marlie was fortunate however, to have so many potential opportunities to work towards, and once she reached that tenth application, she could call it quits for the day, knowing she had put her best foot forward with each application submitted.