Let's Get Digital, Digital!

I'm currently blogging on the internet. When I was growing up, the idea of 'blogging on the internet' made about as much sense of 'Garfunkeling on the sideboard'. Times change and have changed a lot even in the last ten years. This hasn't just changed how we socialise and how we buy our shopping, it has changed the way we look for jobs.

I was flung out into the jobs market after graduating this summer and I've been on the lookout for work ever since. I'll come clean - I don't know how people found jobs before the internet was used widely. Did they all buy Loot and circle the jobs they wanted to apply for? Just how did people find out about the positions that were on offer?

This question really flummoxes me and makes me realise another way I'm so dependent on the internet in my daily life. I don't have a smart phone and if I want to go on the internet, I'll do it on one of my two laptops (which are never too far from me). So when I log on in a morning I hit my top job sites and then I might find something I want to apply for and make an online application. If I don't understand something, I might drop someone an email. My job hunt would be dead in the water without the internet.

I don't know what I'd do without it. The internet has made me think big - I can apply to the big companies all over the world because I can hop over to their website and see what vacancies they have available. I can book a flight online and be ready for an interview the next day.

But it doesn't end there! If I apply for a job in PR and I have no idea what PR is, I wander over to Google and type in 'what is PR?' Assuming I like the sound of PR and apply for a job with a company, I can find out all about them on the internet. Then when I get an interview, I can search for likely questions and research the right kind of interview technique.

I may be able to find out everything about a job more easily, but with the internet they can find out more about me too.  I have a showreel online, I blog, and have profiles on some of the world's favourite social networking sights. If someone wanted to find out about me, then all they need to do is pop over to Google.

There are a few down-points to this. Traffic. Though employers may be able to reach more people, in doing that fifty CVs per job can very quickly become hundreds. There is so much dross to sift through that you often have to be really special to make yourself noticed. If you've managed to corner the market in quirky, alternative self-selling then you might just hit all the right notes - that said because the internet makes things so transparent, it's very easy to go from sublime to the ridiculous with an unwise Tweet and some questionable Facebook photos.

The internet has made me so much more ambitious. These days I stand a much better chance of getting my CV onto the desk of someone important. The only problem is that everyone else does too...