Sunday, October 25, 2009

Paper Classifieds Online

By James Pynn

Remember the good old days of job hunting? You would grab a pen, buy a newspaper, drive to your local diner, order a cup of joe. You'd savor that first sip, crack the newspaper wide open and fold it straight to the classifieds section. As each golden opportunity presented itself, you circle it with random precision, you head filled with the possibilities of working from home or for the U.S. Army. Those were the days.

The times -- they are a changing. You would be hard-pressed now to find a newspaper with a decent classified section. People get everything they need now, online. And that quaint diner? It doesn't like you hanging around all day -- that is reserved for your local Starbucks. Order your latte and battle for that last power outlet to keep your laptop afloat. Once you're online, you'll have thousands of jobs at your fingertips...literally.

Now, I'm not some technological Luddite -- I enjoy the reams of information I can access at any given millisecond. Just as fashion and popular culture reexamines the panache and smoky cocktails of the Sixties, the idea of the job search seemed more, well...smoky and full of panache. The ease of access has democratized the job search, made it far accessible, and far more competitive. You can even job posts sent to your Twitter account. I'm surprised employers don't hire more HR people just to wed through the millions of responses to any given job.

Then there is the question of effectiveness. If you're sending out hundreds of resumes a day, and the gentleman next to you on his laptop is sending hundred and the woman by the window is as well, what are the odds your resume will even make it to anyone's desk. Of course, I've heard most online resumes are run through a keyword analyzer, so it could take even longer before it ends up on in front of an actual human being.

While a paper classified section carries a lot of street cred, I've compromised and decided to keep my laptop and only use online classified sites that I can tailor to where I happen to live. Instead of folding over a wad of newspaper, I just surf my online Los Angeles classifieds site and sip my coffee -- black, no sugar. I don't mean to come off as smug, but there is a certain satisfaction that comes from having a site all to my Angeleno self.

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