Fri, Jan 9, 2009 17:36 EST

The Two Websites Every Job Seeker Needs to Join

Posted by: Meridith Levinson in Best Practices

Topic: Personal Management

Current Rating: Comments: 7

You probably know about one of these websites, but you may not know about the other. Neither is a job board.

When I spoke with David Perry, author of Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters and the blog Guerilla Job Hunting, earlier this week about the wacky things people do to get jobs, he shared lots of other job search insights with me, including two websites that he says every job seeker needs to join because headhunters use them every day to find candidates for jobs.

The first is ZoomInfo, which you may or may not know about and which you may have come across when conducting a vanity search on Google or while searching for other people on the Web.

ZoomInfo is basically a search engine that scours the Web for business information about people and companies. According to ZoomInfo, it gathers information "from the same publicly available web sources" that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft use. Once ZoomInfo has collected information on a person or company, it combines all of that info into an individual "Public Profile" that anyone searching the Web can see.

Perry recommends searching for your name on ZoomInfo. If you don't see yourself listed, he says to create a profile. If your name is listed, Perry says to claim your profile so that you can make sure the information ZoomInfo has is accurate and up-to-date.

Claiming your profile and creating a new one are both free. To claim your profile, you basically create an account with ZoomInfo as you would create a Facebook account: by giving ZoomInfo your e-mail address and creating a password. ZoomInfo then prompts you to verify your identity. You may have to enter a credit card number to verify your identity (or you may be able to enter an alternate valid e-mail address). If you have to use a credit card number, ZoomInfo notes in its privacy policy that it doesn't store your credit card information; it only uses it that one time to verify your identity, to make sure you're not claiming someone else's profile.

Once your account is live, creating and updating your profile is a cinch. Perry recommends uploading a photo because, he says, a photo indicates to recruiters that you want them to find you. (I'm not sure about this recommendation, especially for people who are not comfortable uploading a photo. If a person has a complete and compelling profile on ZoomInfo, that alone should indicate clearly enough to recruiters that the individual want to be found.)

"The reason ZoomInfo is important is because every recruiter in America looks to ZoomInfo first if they're looking for any information on an individual contributor," says Perry.

The second website is LinkedIn.

"When I as a recruiter do a search, I go to ZoomInfo and get a list of 100 people who meet the criteria for my search, then I go to LinkedIn and I do the same search. If I find you on ZoomInfo and LinkedIn, I will call you first," says Perry. "If you're not on ZoomInfo or LinkedIn, recruiters won't find you."

Not only can recruiters more easily find job seekers when they're on ZoomInfo and LinkedIn, says Perry, but these websites can also help job seekers tap into the hidden job market: job seekers can use both websites to find people who recently worked for the companies they're

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Tue, Jan 13, 2009 11:03 EST

ZoomInfo Registration

Posted by: Anonymous
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I tried to sign up at ZoomInfo and recieved errors twice. Using the contact form, I attempted to notifiy ZoomInfo and recieved yet another error (Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Unable to relay for mywebsummary@zoominfo.com).

I tried to contact the author of the article to inform her she is recommending a site with problems and the author does not accept email.

Does due diligence come to mind?

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Tue, Jan 13, 2009 12:02 EST

Zoominfo Registration

Posted by: Anonymous
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I just created a profile for myself without any problems or error messages.

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Tue, Jan 13, 2009 12:20 EST

Due Diligence

Posted by: Meridith Levinson
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I registered with ZoomInfo as part of my research for this blog entry. I didn't have a problem with the site at the time. I'm sorry that you did. I know how frustrating it is when technology doesn't work.

I do accept e-mail. I frequently leave my e-mail address at the bottom of posts. I love to hear from readers. It may be that your e-mail is getting stuck in my spam filter. I will check. My e-mail address is mlevinson at cio dot com.

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Tue, Jan 27, 2009 13:12 EST

ZoomInfo, Ladders, Linkedin, Monster, ect...

Posted by: H. D. Hunter
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My experience has shown these online services may add a few more arrows for your quiver but the points are dull; they just don't stick. Are you old enough to remember when candidates paid a recruiter several thousand dollars to find them that ' perfect position ' ? Probably not but I am. After sending out about 50 resumes with my accomplishments to Personnel ( not even H.R. yet ) and getting no response back other than about a dozen form letter rejections; I called EVERY SINGLE COMPANY THAT I SENT MY RESUME TO and asked them why I wasn't granted an interview. Most companies couldn't even find my resume let alone tell me why I wasn't interviewed. I was able to find out the name of the hiring authority from 13 of these companies during my calls. I called all 13, was granted 5 interviews and had 3 offers. Here's my point: Busy executives do not spend their valuable time scouring these sites, they expect H.R. to do this and we both know where that leads to. This new Facebook, Ladders, ect... stuff reminds me of an American Idol tryout: Be BOLD & BRASH, it will get you noticed but you still have to be able to sing. Welcome to Hollywood, baby........

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Tue, Jan 27, 2009 13:12 EST

ZoomInfo, Ladders, Linkedin, Monster, ect...

Posted by: H. D. Hunter
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