“He or she who gets hired is not necessarily the one who can do that job best; but,the one who knows the most about how to get hired.” – Richard Lathrop

“What Color is Your Parachute” is considered by many as the most popular job-hunting guide. With well over 10 million copies sold, in 20 different languages, it’s certainly hard to argue its global success.  The book, by itself, does not cover everything you need to know about getting a job but it does provide readers with some useful employer hiring insight.

Finding a job today presents many unique challenges that did not exist even five years ago.  Job seekers should no longer rely exclusively on traditional ways to find work (i.e., sending out resumes and waiting for a response), but to utilize some of the more successful and proactive strategies.  Job seekers that rely exclusively on job boards to post their resume and then wait for their employer of choice to call them about an open position, will likely have a low success rate in finding a job.

One of the best diagrams in the book, illustrates how employers prefer to find job candidates (see image below).

I would argue that this is probably one of the most important things every job seeker should clearly understand.  You will notice 6 different layers to the funnel. When going from the top to the bottom, this is how employers prefer filling vacancies. When going from the bottom to the top, this is how job hunters prefer being found, and unfortunately, how most job seekers today search for employment.

With web innovation, social media growth and employers constantly looking to hire the ‘best’ talent for their needs, the traditional way people look for jobs (i.e. job boards) will eventually be replaced by new and innovative companies looking to disrupt the traditional model.  LinkedIn is one example, where users can get proof driven recommendations from their peers.

At WhyHire.me, we are focused on creating a proof driven platform that helps students with limited work experience showcase their initiative, demonstrate progress and help employers pre-qualify talented candidates, so they will have talent in the pipeline when those positions become available.  For example, if you’re a programmer, we’ll let you showcase your program and source code; if your goal is to be a counselor, you can share your volunteer work, and/or a relevant case study; etc.  Hiring the right candidate is about establishing trust, early and often, and the web will continue to transform this process.

Interested in connecting? Follow me on twitter @robsaric