Tips on Doing a Career Search Using Google

Using Google to do a job search can make finding your ideal career less time consuming once you know how to search. If you Google “careers” or “jobs,” you’ll end up with more results than you have time to sift through–and it may overwhelm you.

The key to making a Google career search work for you is to narrow down your job search to those jobs you know you definitely want, and then choosing the right search terms that will get you more targeted results.

One way to get targeted results is to use correct and specific job titles. However, for a Google search, you also want to use the most commonly used version of a job title to get the best results. For example, searching “customer service associate” or “sales associate” may not get you the results you want, but searching “customer service representative” or “sales representative” may get better results. Try both versions of your preferred job title and see which one works best.

In addition to using correct and specific job titles when using Google for career searches , you also want to use a specific location in your search parameters, be it where you currently live or in another geographic location. If you’re looking for a job in Buffalo, west of New York City, you would enter “western New York.” This will bring up results pointing you to jobs in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and other cities in the western New York region. The more targeted your search parameters, the more targeted your results.

In the same fashion, use the specific employer names if you have a certain employer in mind. Don’t use abbreviations, initials or shortened versions of the company names, unless it’s a government agency  like “IRS”, “UPS” or “USEPA”, which most likely will bring up results pointing you to directly to those agencies’ sites. Using job description terms like “submit your resume”, “submit your application”, or “apply here” in a Google career search can help you find results on the types of jobs many companies have posted.

If you’re a novice to doing a search using Google, career browsing may involve a bit of a learning curve. However, it’s not a learning curve that’s hard to get through. Usually the results of your first search will help you refine your second search. You keep refining your searches until you eventually learn targeted searches that net you more results in a shorter amount of time.

Note that you will come across both corporate career sites, recruiting firm websites, and job boards – even other job search engines like Indeed.com or SimplyHired.com. Make sure that you have a number of tightly crafted resumes and cover letters prepared for each different type of position and type of site that you are applying to.

When searching for a new job and applying to lots of different open positions, the key is an approach of nuanced quantity – make sure that each application that you submit is targeted and personalized for the exact employer (audience) that you are reaching. However, you can’t let this stop you from submitting a solid quantity of resume applications consistently over time. In times of high unemployment, you must play the odds and get in front of a lot of employers. Just be sure that when you are tailoring your resume and letters according to different positions, that you don’t make mistakes or address the wrong party – it’s easier than one might think to make mistakes! Good luck out there!