2/18/2011 5:34:17 PM
Improve your job search: Job searching tips for ARM.co.uk
This is a short guide to getting the best search results from
the ARM job search and also how to
ensure you are notified of relevant opportunities as soon as they
become available.
1. Using the Boolean search
Our keyword search is a full Boolean search, meaning you can
combine words using AND, OR and NOT e.g.
- software AND engineer
- sap OR oracle
- manager NOT project
- web AND development NOT design
and group terms using brackets, e.g. (oil OR gas) AND
(engineer OR consultant)
If you wish to return results that match an exact phrase,
enclose the phrase in quotes, e.g. “project
manager”.
To search on variations of a word, use an asterisk after the
stem of the word, e.g. manage* will return results for manage,
manager, managed, management, etc.
2. Start wide, narrow it down
Begin your search with a wide search criteria which will
hopefully return a lot of jobs. Then, depending on the number of
jobs you are presented with, begin narrowing the search further
until you are left with only the most relevant results. For
instance, say I was looking for a job as a Web Designer. I’d
perhaps first do a search for web and design in
the keywords box. I got 57 results, too many to look through. So
now I’ll add some location criteria and specify the job must be in
Hampshire or “West Sussex”. I got 7 results. But I
also will only consider a permanent role, so I change the Job Type
dropdown list to permanent and now get 5 results.
A nice number to read through and hopefully apply for.
The Location, Job Type and Industry Sector fields are perfect
for narrowing your search. Don’t be afraid to tweak the search to
get exactly the results you want – if you get no results with your
current criteria, widen the search.
3. Check back regularly
The ARM job search updates in real time. So as soon as a new job
is taken on by one of our consultants, or another job is filled,
ARM.co.uk is updated
immediately to reflect this. We add, on average, 95 jobs to our
website every week. Therefore it’s important you come back
regularly to check for the latest jobs, or use one the facilities
described below to be informed of our latest opportunities. Also
you can limit your keyword search to only show recently posted
jobs, so you know you won’t be looking at the same jobs you’ve seen
before.
4. Use the right search terms
This might sound a little patronising – it’s not meant to. You’d
be surprised by some of the terms people search for in looking for
a job and wonder why they get little to no results. I recently
noticed someone had searched on our website for Keyword: Live
bands, Location: Japan!
Using the right words is key to finding the right job. If you
are looking for a very specific job title, bear in mind the company
with the perfect role for you may have a slightly different name
for it, so be more general or wide-ranging in your search terms.
For instance, if you’re a VB.net developer, roles that interest you
might be advertised as VB Developer, .Net Developer, Software
Developer, Software Engineer etc. So a search for (VB or
.net) and (developer or engineer) should ensure all bases
are covered.
5. Let the jobs come to you
All the jobs you see on ARM.co.uk are available through a
number of social media channels and via various notification
methods. As a registered member of arm.co.uk, you can sign up for
our jobs-by-email service, where jobs matching your search criteria
(which you have perfected, following the above) are emailed to you
either daily or weekly.
If that’s not your thing, why not join the ARM Social
Network and follow our job channels on
Twitter, search our vacancies on our
Facebook page or consume our job
RSS feeds, which are available by sector and job type.
Christian Staunton
Senior Design & Web Development Executive
Add me on LinkedIn
ARM