The Intertops Poker Bonus site is a huge success! The boss is pleased! The owner wants to expand – and hire more workers! 50 years ago, posting a job meant just posting an ad in the Sunday Classified Ads, and finding a job just meant you mailed your best resume to the hiring manager.
But in 2019, it is no longer that easy. A company cannot just post an ad. Google has to give it its stamp of approval. An applicant can’t just hope to impress the hiring boss and possibly even the HR person, the application also has to get the Google stamp of approval. And you thought that computers were supposed to make your job easier? Ha, guess again!
If you are an entrepreneur in 2019, then you already know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Usually, business owners think about it in terms of their website blog, “about us” pages, and press releases. But it also applies to Job Postings and Resumes.
Getting the “Google stamp of approval” involves structured data and SEO keyword optimization. Structured data in combination with best SEO practices help search engines like Google give meaning to your words.
This is true for all types of data, including Job Postings and Resumes.
Job Posting
Every entrepreneur at some point needs to hire additional help. 50 years ago, it meant buying an ad in the Sunday paper’s classified section. Today, it means putting an ad out in the equivalent of Google’s classified section.
The first step is obviously posting the job on your company’s website. But that is the first step.
The next step is an important one. You have to tell Google that you posted a job. This is done through code snippets or as it is also called structured data. Instead of asking Google on its own to figure out what you are saying in your job posting, you specifically tell Google what you are saying.
Here is an example of a Job Posting. Just remember that this code is placed in the HEAD section of your HTML document.
<script>
{
“@context” : “https://schema.org/”,
“@type” : “JobPosting”,
“title” : “Software Engineer”,
“description”: “<p>Google aspires to be an organization that reflects the globally diverse audience that our products and technology serve. We believe that in addition to hiring the best talent, a diversity of perspectives, ideas, and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services.</p>”,
“datePosted” : “2017-01-18”,
“validThrough” : “2017-03-18T00:00”,
“employmentType” : “CONTRACTOR”,
“hiringOrganization” : {
“@type” : “Organization”,
“name” : “Google”,
“sameAs” : “http://www.google.com”,
“logo” : “http://www.example.com/images/logo.png”
},
“jobLocation”: {
“@type”: “Place”,
“address”: {
“@type”: “PostalAddress”,
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy”,
“addressLocality”: “, Mountain View”,
“addressRegion”: “CA”,
“postalCode”: “94043”,
“addressCountry”: “US”
}
},
“baseSalary”: {
“@type”: “MonetaryAmount”,
“currency”: “USD”,
“value”: {
“@type”: “QuantitativeValue”,
“value”: 40.00,
“unitText”: “HOUR”
}
}
}
</script>
Not all of the information is required. The only condition that Google places on the structured data is that the words that are placed in the structured data must appear in the visible text that is displayed to the user. Google is well aware of keyword stuffing inside of the hidden text, including JSON structured data text. Google’s philosophy is that if the user cannot see the text, then the text must not be important.
Another thing to remember is don’t use the Job Posting unless you are posting a job that you’re actively trying to fill. Not only does it penalize your specific website, but it also penalizes the whole job posting/job searching industry.
Resume
But it is not just the job posting that can be marked up with JSON Schema structured data. Resumes can be marked up as well. This is an advantage not only for Google search engines but for your company’s own internal searches as well.
Anybody who has done a job search over the last 10 years is well aware of how computers are being used during the job hiring process. It used to be that the joke was that your resume had to make a great impression because you only had 1 minute to convince the HR hiring manager to give your resume to the “boss” and not put your resume in the trash.
Now a job seeker has 1/1000th of a second to convince a computer to put your resume in front of the HR person who will then take 1 minute to decide if your resume should go to the boss or to the trash.
The underlying processing is the same, and the more that you make your resume idiot-proof to the search engine (the computer), the better off you will be. As with the Job Posting, it starts with the JSON Schema structured data.
Not all of the fields are required, but anything that you would want somebody to be able to search on should be marked up properly.
Now that you have sold your resume to the computer, it is now time to sell your resume to the HR person.
Selling the Resume To the HR Person
After you have sold your resume to the search engine, you now have to sell your resume to the human HR person. The human HR person isn’t driven by structured data. The person is driven by emotion and feelings or as some people call it, their gut.
Good thing there are over 250+ processing themes to convert your JSON Schema resume into something that we traditionally would call a resume.
With 250+ choices, a job seeker should be able to find something to beautify their resume.
Does a Resume End With a Resume?
No. Most employers before calling a potential employee will do a quick Google search on the person. Do you want the potential employer to guess where to look or do you want to make their job easier and tell them where to look?
In today’s electronic internet world, I personally believe that every serious job candidate should have a 2.0 version of their resume. The 1.0 version is the traditional resume that is supposed to be able to pass the 1 minute HR test. The 2.0 version is to help the hiring manager decide if you should or should not be called in for an interview.
And the beauty of the 2.0 version (aka, resume website, portfolio, whatever you want to call it), there are no limits. Do you have examples of your work? Put them on your website. You are free to show yourself off in any way that you believe will sell you: words, audio, video, and a combination of all three.
There are sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, but there is no requirement that you have to use one of these type of sites to show yourself off. Whatever URL you put in your resume is where the employer is going to look. They may not end their research on you there, but that is where it will usually begin.
Summary
Electronic resumes have gone full circle. First, it started out as a 1-2 page resume where the layout and visual appearance was important. Then it went to resume sites with HTML fields, and all visual appeal went out the window. A job hunter truly felt like a bunch of 1’s and 0’s inside a computer. Now with JSON Resume Schema, and themes that understand the JSON Resume Schema, job seekers can now not only create a resume that appeals to search engines but can also display a person’s unique personality to the potential employer — help them to stand out from the crowd.
