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.

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.

• 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.

• Not Enough Information - Have you tried to program blind? It does not work. If you do not understand the task at hand there is no way that you can successfully code a project to completion. Trying to code with just a vague understanding of the task does not work. I have tried countless times to code blind but I always end up having to ask a ton of questions to successfully get the needed info to complete the project.

• The Chain Of Information – Knowing who to ask for the right information can be downright confusing sometimes. If you’re stuck on something you may have to ask a ton of people just to get the right answer to your question or something fixed. This is not fun at all. For example I was on a chat the other day where 10 people were involved over a 5 hour time frame just to get the answer to something which impacted my project from succeeding

• Configuration Hassles - In large companies dealing with improperly set up configurations and broken configurations sometimes happens more often than not. It’s not surprising when there are dozens of people working on different aspects at a time of the same system.

• Too Many Dependencies – I have worked on complicated systems where many components are so tightly coupled that if one component breaks it breaks the rest of the system. This is not really a good idea to code to that degree. It is not smart to code like that in critical systems.

These are just some of the many reasons why everything can go wrong at once.

In 2008 I had the following accomplishments:

•    I started my blog which gave me a chance to share my knowledge of IT with the world.
•    I left my old dead end job in August to pursue further growth.
•    I got a contract with a large company in Tampa in September.

This had several other positive effects on both my personal and professional life including:

•    This allowed me to live one of my dreams of living in Florida that I’ve had for years.
•    It allowed me to make quite a bit more money as a consultant that I did as a permanent employee.
•    I work less hours usually for greater pay.
•    I get treated far better than I did as a permanent employee.
•    I actually got a chance to drive cross country which was awesome.
•    I discovered that just how much easier it is to meet people in Florida compared to Indiana.

The best pieces of advice I learned in 2008 was the following: Jobs will come jobs will go.  Loyalty to a employer is worthless.  Companies really only care about themselves. Do whatever it takes to find happiness in both your career and personal life.

I would also advice a caution to those that do listen to those older workers. Everyone has their own biased views because of where there from and where they’ve worked. Just because some man or woman  50 years old has trouble finding a job and can’t move that doesn’t mean there are no jobs available in a certain field. Remember age is just one of many factors in finding a job in IT but not the total factor.

I regularly read forums like Dice and constantly see people complaining that IT is dead and there are no jobs. Remember everyone has a motive whether good or bad.

Respect your senior IT workers we’ll all be there at some point.

Moving Your Things Tip

• Move Your Stuff As Needed – It helps if you’re able to move all of your possessions immediately. If you can’t do that and are lucky enough to have relatives that will let you store your belongings it makes it easier. Moving things gradually eliminates the hassle of hurrying to move everything and being overwhelmed to deal with a huge move.

Apartment Hunting Tips

Every renter should ask his or herself these things before moving into a new apartment.

• Cost – Cost is an important factor but not the most important factor to consider when looking for a new apartment. You’re better off paying a slightly higher price and living in a better neighborhood than having cheap rent and living in a bad neighborhood.

• Location – Location is by far the most important factor to consider when looking for a new apartment. Do you want to live close to work and avoid the hassle of a long commute? Is the neighborhood the apartment is in safe? Is the apartment close to the shops/businesses I like to frequent? Is the apartment close to public transportation if you need it? How are the people in the neighborhood/apartment complex?

• Extras – This isn’t really an important factor to me but I thought I would include it anyway. Do you want a gym/pool/clubhouse etc…? Be prepared to pay extra if you want extras which really aren’t necessary or worth the additional cost.

Other Tips

• Learn As Much As You Can About The Area – Education yourself about a city as much as possible before you make the move is really a good idea. I wish I was better prepared when I made my last move.

• Things To Do – When it comes down to it when you’re not working you’re going to want to do things. It helps if you have an idea of what attractions and amenities that a city has available. Knowing what outdoor attractions, museums or businesses a city has well better help you get a feel for the city.

• People Are Different Everywhere – I have to say this people are different everywhere. The attitudes and philosophy differ of people no matter what part /region/state/city you live in. For example a person in living in San Francisco, California will have a different outlook on life than someone from Mobile, Alabama. You will soon come to understand the differences between your old home and new home.

These tips summarize what I’ve learned about relocation for employment over the past few years.

I speak from personal experience that finding a job in IT isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work and preparation to get the job. Just remember that there is an idea job out there for you. You just must never ever give up.

• They key to finding a job is that you must stay motivated at all the time and never every give up in your job hunt. You have to remain focused and dedicated in your search.I have been there several times and it’s no fun when you can’t find a job. When you’re looking for a job you should focus on utilizing all resources at your disposal.

• For a IT worker in my experience the best way to find a job is to use typical job hunting web sites. I also highly advise using any and all contacts you’ve made throughout your career (who you know really can help find you a job with a little luck). Staffing agencies are sometimes a good option and work once you’ve built up a good resume.

• The one piece of advice that I highly advice against is that some non IT people say you should mail in a resume . The truth is that doesn’t work in IT. Even calling to ask about a application you submitted for a company doesn’t do any good. If a company wants to here from you they’ll call you.