If you’re looking for a job, you’ll probably realize soon enough that job hunting can really be considered a job itself.
It takes time to find quality job openings even when you search online. Then, you need to consider the time spent submitting all your application materials, following up, and coordinating interviews.
Automating the job search process would make things so much simpler and save you a ton of time.
Luckily, here are a few easy ways to do exactly that!
How to Automate Your Job Search
Sign Up For IFTTT
IFTTT is a website that stands for If This Then That. It allows you to use applets to create ‘recipes’ that perform different tasks.
Creating applets is easy, and can really curate your job search because they bring together the services, apps, and websites that you use every day.
IFTTT is helpful for a lot of different tasks. You can:
- Save Gmail attachments to Dropbox
- Save and share your Instagram photos across social media
- Track your hours spent doing various tasks in Google Calendar
- Find what you’re looking for on Craigslist
- Tell Alexa or Google assistant to find your phone
- And send yourself new job leads
To use IFTTT to automate your job search, you need to sign up, create an applet by using the RSS feed, and add specific keywords from your favorite job sites.
For example, if you’re trying to look for a virtual assistant job via social media, you can create an applet for Twitter updates. You can set it up so that every time someone posts a tweet including a phrase like: ‘Looking to hire a virtual assistant’ or ‘I need a VA’, you can be notified via text or email.
Here are examples of job-related IFTTT recipes you can set up to automate your job search (please note that a few of these are not related to employment since the search pulled anything with “job” in the title).
So what is the “if this, then that” of IFTTT? Glad you asked!
Each applet you create will require an initial action in order to trigger a result. In the case of the example, the trigger action is a Twitter post with a specific keyword (serving as the ‘if this’). The result is that you’ll receive a notification automatically so you can follow up on the potential job lead (serving as the ‘then that’).
If you use IFTTT to create applets to aid your job search, you won’t have to do a ton of manual work and check up on individual websites for new postings.
Related – Tips to Help You Find Home-Based Work
Use Google Alerts
Google Alerts will come in handy when you’re trying to learn more about a company or find out when they’re hiring.
Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service offered by Google.
The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results including web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, books, videos, discussions, etc. that match your search term(s).
For example, if you’ve been waiting for a transcription company to post more job opportunities, setting up a Google Alert with specific search terms will help you be one of the first people to know when there’s an opening instead of having to check back on the website constantly and at random.
Just go to Google Alerts and enter a company’s name, a recruiter’s name, or even a position you’d like to receive updates for so you’re always in the loop. You need a Google account to use Alerts.
Sign Up for Job Board Newsletters
Some popular and legitimate job boards tend to send the latest job leads out to subscribers weekly.
If you visit sites like The Muse or Indeed, you can sign-up to receive regular updates on certain job openings instead of searching the site manually.
This will also be helpful when searching for jobs on-the-go so you won’t have to be tied down to a computer to check up on leads.
Company Career Sites
Have your heart set on working for a specific company? You can check to see if their website allows you to sign up for job alerts via email.
American Express, for example, allows candidates to sign up for job alerts, so you’ll be automatically notified when there are openings.
Final Word
Searching for a job online can be a time-consuming and semi-stressful process.
You can simplify everything and save time and energy by automating your job search using one of the methods mentioned above of, or a combination of a few of them.
