Job recruiter gives tips on job search

Many people are looking for work but cannot find a job.

In July, the national unemployment rate was 4.3%, and in Ohio it was 4.5%. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 8 million job openings, but many people are struggling to find new opportunities.

Tom Johnston, a longtime executive recruiter and author of the new book “Where's Your Buffalo: A Recruiter's Guide To Getting The Career You Want, Earning What You're Worth, And Doing What You Love,” said it's largely because many people simply don't know how to find what they're looking for.

“First of all, we have basically full employment at this rate,” Johnston said. “There are plenty of opportunities out there. But I think the main reason is that people don't know how to look for a new job. It's very, very difficult. A lot of the different methods that people try just don't work.”

The landscape for applying for jobs has changed drastically over the years. Thanks to technology, it's seemingly easier than ever for people to find and apply for jobs. People often use job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed, but Johnston says these aren't very effective.

“It was a flawed and broken system from the beginning,” Johnston said. “When these job boards came along, anyone could apply to anything they wanted. Then technology came along and started developing different ways to weed out applicants. So when you apply for a job, instead of trying to be inclusive, they try to exclude you. It really doesn't work. Also, job boards and LinkedIn are public websites. No one should know that you're looking for a new opportunity until you finally find it and you want everyone to know. The fact that it's a public website and the fact that it excludes people really makes the whole system unworkable. And that's very, very frustrating. People apply for jobs and usually don't even get a response.”

Johnston has been in the world of talent acquisition for more than 35 years, and he said the vast majority of jobs being filled today aren't through job boards, recruiters or internal referrals.

He recommends that people learn to flip the model and become their own recruiter. In his book, he teaches people how to use the techniques he's learned over the years to go from being reactive seekers to being proactive hunters.

“Find the companies that will give you the work you want to do, your dream job, not the ones that are posting openings,” Johnston said. “If the jobs are on the Internet, it's too late. You should find the companies that really fit your goals. Build relationships with the people in those organizations so that when the job opens up, they can leverage the internal referrals long before they post it on the Internet, long before they call an expensive recruiter to help them.”

For more information about Johnston's new book and other job search tools, click here.