If you’re anything like me, you don’t really go to stores anymore, opting instead to get everything from Amazon. It’s fast, cheap, and has a wide selection; plus, I can do it from my phone at any time of day or night. Well, to my knowledge, Amazon cannot yet dial you up a job with Prime, so you still have to do that the old -well- new-fashioned way.
Conducting a job search today relies heavily on technology and online or mobile applications. Insurance is a niche industry, meaning some posting sites are better than others to find the best job openings. Here are four options I find more successful for insurance professionals seeking new job opportunities.
Job Boards
Scour thousands of listings with ease
The classics like Monster and CareerBuilder are still kicking, but modern resources like ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and LinkedIn have the majority of insurance jobs posted. Online or in an app, you can scour thousands of listings with ease.
- You’ll want to explore multiple boards, but be mindful that many jobs will be cross posted.
- It’s always a good idea to only apply once to a job, and even to a hiring manager who might have multiple jobs posted on multiple boards.
- Narrow your results. Location, compensation, title/duties, etc. You’re in a niche business so the list shouldn’t be pages and pages long. Scrolling through too many wastes your time and energy.
- Look for newly posted roles. This helps avoid postings that companies leave out perpetually for roles they often need. You want real opportunities if you’re actively looking.
Resume Databases
These largely accompany job boards, but there are some independent ones out there. In general, I would not recommend uploading your resume. Nothing necessarily happens as a result that is bad, but you’ll likely be inundated with interest from pure commission sales roles and other opportunities that amount to career spam. Databases are really just a sales tool for the job boards (like Monster and Careerbuilder) to get recruiters to buy their products. The idea of having a ‘stockpile of candidates to peruse’ is how they try to differentiate their products and services. Rarely do I find the people I’m looking for in those banks.
Save your time. Good recruiters working on solid opportunities will find you elsewhere.
Social Media
Companies utilize multiple platforms to post job openings. It is a great way to interact directly with them, get your foot in the door for a conversation, or to tee up sending an application or resume. Typically, Facebook seems to be a go-to, but many companies are on Instagram, Twitter, and even YouTube.
- Follow companies you are interested in working for. When they share job openings, the alert should pop up on your feed immediately.
- Interact with them, but don’t overdo it. Most insurance agencies, for example, have one person running their social media. If you apply and then send five follow up messages, they are all funneling to the same inbox. They’ll interpret persistence as crazy.
- Have a profile that is visible and professional. The company will look at your bio on the same platform through which you applied.
Make sure all social media accounts are flattering to you and do not include commentary employers could deem negative, controversial, or unprofessional.
While LinkedIn could easily be lumped under the social media header, I intentionally separated it because the platform allows you to directly interact with a hiring manager as much if not more so than the company itself. This is not the case for all other job boards.
- Find hiring managers, HR leaders, and others in charge of hiring for the roles you want and connect with them. This helps you avoid the ‘e-blackhole’ that many resumes and applications find their way into.
- Build out your profile to look like an enhanced resume. Keywords, titles and previous employers make you searchable and provides details and information to hiring managers who look you up there (they all do).
By the time you read this, the landscape of job hunting may have undergone further change, but the ideas and strategies will transfer through at least a few more iterations; at least until we’re able to just add them to the cart and order them up through Amazon.