Fast-changing market, technology drive job searches

One of the hidden reasons employers don't want their workers to surf the Internet is because it is now possible to do 90 percent of a job search behind the protection of a cubicle wall. The job search is changing rapidly this millennium.

Of course, there is always that 10 percent of time taken up with face-to-face interviews, but if you can surf the Web, you can find a new job at the speed of your modem.

A labor shortage and a booming economy are driving the changes, but it is technology that is leading the charge. We are fast approaching the day when the paper rsum will be as outdated as the eight-track tape.

There have been more changes in the job market in the last two years than in the previous 20. The most important change is coming from the World Wide Web with such innovations as the proliferation of job search engines like

monster.com

and

headhunter.net.

Through these, employers and applicants can connect. Recently, many online job search engines have offered virtual job fairs where the modem connects parties in real time.

Even print media is taking advantage of the net. The Springfield News-Leader posts its local job listings on

ozarksjobs.com

with links to nationwide jobs through

CareerPath.com.

Government agencies have also entered the fray with such sites as

missourijobs.com

for jobs and information across the state.

Company Web sites are fast becoming a job seeker's paradise.

Not only may individuals find positions posted, they may also do company research, read about new products and even get directions.

Applicants are becoming better informed and asking tougher questions in interviews. Prospective employers now have the ability to target desired employers with much greater ease.

The immediacy of e-mail has made transmission of rsums and communication between interested parties smoother. After an interview, thank-yous can be quickly e-mailed showing interest and providing immediate feedback.

Resumes look slicker now due to candidate proficiency with word processing, but they are also in the process of evolution. Rsums on CD/ROM are already being used in technology fields, and the rest of the market will soon follow.

The rsum on CD will include the usual historical information about a candidate, as well as portfolio examples, references, pictures and more. This may bring up a legal quagmire if pictures are featured. CD rsums will not be as anonymous as paper ones.

Video conferencing is becoming more common. We are not too far from the day when the first interview will be held through a videophone or camera in your computer.

Videophones are available now, but the cost is prohibitive. We have only to look at the steadily declining cost of VCRs to see how quickly that may change.

As personal Web sites increase, job candidates will post their portfolios and personal sales tools online.

The danger with all of these candidate-based search tools is that not only do prospective employers have access to them, so does your current employer.

"There is no substitute for the one-on-one relationship between a recruiter and an employer," said Gary Gibson, of Gibson Associates, an executive recruitment firm in Springfield. "Someone still has to go through and read, qualify and quantify candidates."

Gibson said he believes there will always be a need for the live recruiter. A recruiter can find candidates who are qualified but who are not looking to change jobs. He added that he sees more use of the Internet to fill lower-level jobs in the next few years, but a continuing need for the personal contact a headhunter brings to the table for mid- to high-level positions.

Inside corporate America, human resource professionals are drowning in an avalanche of rsums.

Companies such as Webhire are providing solutions. They allow organizations to input certain candidate criteria through a modem.

Webhire's Web crawler then searches a wide variety of rsum databanks to come up with viable candidates.

They also provide administrative systems so that all incoming rsums are filed and can be retrieved easily in a paperless environment.

We may be interviewing by videophone through an interview set up by an anonymous recruiter we met on the Web, but job search will always boil down to one thing: You won't get hired if you don't do well in the interview.

But, you may get more interviews.

(Sinara Stull O'Donnell is a free-lance writer and a former executive recruiter for such companies as Dunhill Executive Search, Disney, HealthNet and Nestl USA.)