The recruitment scene has changed.

In prehistoric times to get a new job you had to open the paper to the add page and try and find something that matched. After that you could find it with the job agencies that were up to date on a lot more open positions. And then the internet came along and gave birth to job portals like LinkedIn.

Now we have moved on again.

Seventy percent of all open positions do not get posted online and that has consequences.

Online portals:

This means that if you are dependent on those online portals that you have to make very sure that your profile is updated and fitted out with the best ways to get noticed. If you are employed it makes sense to keep your professional online presence but if you are looking for a new opportunity like me then you really need to pimp your profile.
Living in Switzerland there are 2 basic options that people use LinkedIn and Xing. Now It would make sense for me to have both but I have chosen to focus just on one since my target employers are more international and in the startup range. If you are looking for a more general traditional job then having a presence on both might be useful.

Spontaneous applications:

Since we are moving away from the traditional way of recruiting a lot of companies just browse the net for possible candidates before either putting the position online or handing it out to recruiters. So there has also been a growing movement for people to send their C.V. to companies that really interest them or where they feel they would fit in. You can also find more of the bigger companies to have an option for spontaneous job applications.

Using your Network

This is the way that most positions get filled these days. Because you, as a jobsearcher, talked to someone and they knew someone. If you look it up on Wikipedia then you get a lot of information but the basic is this:

Networking is a socio-economic business activity by which businesspeople and entrepreneurs meet to form business relationships and to recognise, create, or act upon business opportunities, share information and seek potential partners for ventures.

And this principle can also be applied when you are looking for a new job. Use the people you know and find out if they know anyone in the businesses where you would like to work. If they already work there then find out if there are open positions or if they would recommend the company. If there are no people you know then maybe just call the HR department to ask them some questions. Go out and mix and mingle and you will be surprised what kind of opportunities arise. For that the Meetup app is a nice tool. It allows you to find groups of people that meet the same interests as you, especially if you are looking to switch careers.

So look through your friends, family, acquaintances, ex colleagues and find out who works where and if they may help you in your search. Just invite them for a coffee and see how it goes. The only thing that you might lose is some time or you might have a nice chat and could even get a new connection or a job out of it.