iamacp.com – I Am A Computer Programmer
All about the daily work issues of a Java/J2EE Computer Programmer

There are many ways a job seeker can look for work. Most people know about using job hunting sites like CareerBuilder, Dice, Monster and countless others. Many others people use social networking sites like Facebook, and LinkedIn to develop a professional network. What most people don’t give much thought to is to actually putting out a site dedicated to promoting themselves. This is a very important but often neglected step which will limit your potential opportunities if not done.

Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to find work is one of the best ways you can use to  start increasing your opportunities. I’ll tell you my story below:

My Story

Every time I was in the job market over the past 5 years maybe 1/2 a dozen times I would always talk to a ton of recruiters. Almost everyone of them at some point would ask me to email them a copy of my resume. It got to be a real hassle if I was away from my computer for more than a few hours. Well, about a year ago I decided to finally do something about it. I created a  site just dedicated to promoting myself and my resume.

I had used Google Analytics  (Google’s web site traffic analysis tool) previously on this site and am always curious about the visitors to my sites and  the statistics surrounding those figures.  I figured I might as well add tracking to my resume site so I can see if can learn something. What I never began to think about was that recruiters were actually starting to contact me about finding me as a result of a search in Google. This was pretty cool despite usually having no interest to go to the location the jobs were in.

As of today I have had  25 keyword searches on Google that have brought 32 visitors to my resume site. Many of them were looking for specific skills and locations (Charlotte, Boston, and Louisville being the common ones).

How You Can Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  To Find Work Today

• A Resume Site Posted Is Better Than No Resume Site: If you have a resume you might as well create a site and post it. You will loose out on opportunities from recruiters if they don’t see you in the search engines.

• Long Keyword Rich Resumes Generate Organic Traffic: I could never understand why they used to tell you to keep  your resume short and brief as possible. I have several years of professional experience and have a very long several page resume. Recruiters and employers rarely if ever complained about this. Most of them saw this as a asset and thus would contact me non stop. If you want your resume to be picked up in the search engines and job sites more often you should use as many keywords related to your job that apply.

• Read About Search Engine Optimization: Reading  about search engine optimization will give you ideas on how you can apply these principals to promoting yourself. You don’t have to be a expert either. Just understanding the basics will help you in promoting yourself and  can  increase your job opportunities promoted.

As  you have seen using SEO (search engine optimization) to find work is a often overlooked but very valuable technique to help you find work.

Every single job I’ve had I’ve always learned new lessons. I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned this time was to network more while you’re employed. I have networked in the past but usually just the occasional contact or update with a vendor. This was a mistake. The importance of networking is the single most important way you can get job leads. I highly recommend that if you haven’t joined LinkedIn already you should do so. It’s a great social networking site to keep contact with people who can help you land a job (coworkers, headhunters, etc..). You really can’t have enough contacts when it comes to finding a job.

In just 2+ weeks I have already accumulated over 40 contacts on LinkedIn and it will rise in the coming days and weeks. I will continue to build my contacts even when landing my next job.

The most important thing a computer programmer can do is sizing up the competition. Sizing up the competition allows a computer programmer to evaluate his worth and value in the marketplace. Doing this is one of the most important things a computer programmer can do to investigate the market. Here are The Benefits Of Sizing Up The Competition.

• Seeing What The Market Is Like For Your Skills – I have  tested the market time and time again while employed just to see what the market is like for my background. Call it curiosity but I am always looking for better and more promising opportunities. I don’t really ever thing I would be happy at least knowing if I could not make more money, work in a better location or have better fringe benefits.
• Decide Whether To Stay Or Move On - I have worked in several companies where I just was totally unhappy or not satisfied where I was in my career. By knowing where you stand you can see if it’s a good decision to stay with your current company or look elsewhere. There is no point staying where you are if you know you can do better elsewhere.
• Testing Your Resume – You really do not have to respond to any new opportunity but you get a chance to see how effective your resume is. If you don’t like the results you can try rewriting it and see if the rewrite helps.  Keeping your resume current is a great way to help size up the competition.

These are The Benefits Of Sizing Up The Competition. Every so often when I am curious about the current market I size up the competition by testing my resume to see where I stand.  Usually it’s a huge confidence booster for me and feel much  better after. You can follow this or not but keeping aware of the market can only help you.