WAMBUGU: Google is changing job-searching process

For decades, employers used to post jobs on newspapers. Whereas some companies still do, the proliferation and penetration of the internet provides a palette of possibilities for employers to advertise jobs. Technology keeps raising the bar for efficiency.

Job hunters must also change in tandem. They must keep their fingers on the pulse of online tools that corral and publish jobs.

They need to migrate from paper to online job-searching tools. Such tools help find and match jobs with seekers’ skills, and increase their chances of landing the desired job.

These tools deftly filter jobs by skills, salary and location. Google, the biggest beast of the search engines, uses “Google for Jobs” feature to corral and filter jobs that match job-seekers specified queries.

Google for Jobs is powered by artificial intelligence which can sense the jobseeker’s location and find available jobs that are close by.

Google for Jobs has no special website address or URL: You just type your job search criteria on the Google Search bar, just as you would search other information.

When you type your search query on the Google Search, Google extends its tentacles to online job publishing boards such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, LinkedIn.com, Glassdoor.com, Facebook.com and Care.com in search for jobs that meet a user-defined criteria.

You can further narrow the search options to include job category and the type of company you would like to work for.

The resultant job listing would show you when the job was posted, where it was originally listed, application deadline and whether the position is full-time, or part-time.

Depending on the level of experience and skills, a jobseeker may want to restrict themselves to jobs that only offer a certain amount of salary — a specification that can be made on Google’s search space.

In fact, many advertisers do not include salary details on their postings. Google can provide data on a typical salary for many types of jobs by their location.

This information may not be always accurate, but one can use it as the best salary barometer for a job.

Google compiles the salary data from companies such as LinkedIn.com and Glassdoor.com that collect and curate such data.

An additional notable feature on Google for Jobs is the ability to turn on the job alert option.

When Google finds jobs that match the job-seekers specification, it sends them out to the jobseeker’s email. That means that Google does the tedious job-hunting work for you.

To apply for a job, one can click the provided job link and submit an application. The link may direct the applicant to the job-advertiser’s company website from where to submit an application.

Imagine if people could find jobs easier, employers would get fewer and more appropriate candidates. This is the future that Google for Jobs and other online tools seek to create.