5 great ways to find a job with Google Alerts

by Adam Green on March 14, 2009

in Google Alerts, Job Search, Search engine optimization, Tricks

1. Start keeping track of potential employers. Set up an alert for each company you are applying to that includes the company name, CEO’s name, lead product, and other useful words such as layoff or hiring. This will give you lots of background for any interviews you might have. You want to be able to come in with informed comments and questions. Let’s say you are applying for a job at Microsoft. Reading the alerts from this query will help you understand where they are growing and shrinking jobs.
(ballmer OR microsoft OR windows) (layoff OR announcement OR hiring)

2. Set up alerts for friends from prior jobs, college, or grad school. It may be uncomfortable to contact them out of the blue, if you are not still in touch. A news alert about something related to them will give you an excuse to reconnect and do some networking. Remember to ask them for a Linkedin recommendation.

3. Will knowing about ongoing academic research in your field impress an interviewer? Set up an alert for keywords from your industry and site:edu to just get results from university publications.
biotech “drug testing” site:edu

4. Do government contracts create opportunities that will affect your job search? Set up an alert for keywords from your industry along with the terms rfp or grant, and site:gov to keep track of what government agencies are funding in relation to your specialty.
biotech “drug testing” (rfp OR grant) site:gov

5. Find out which funded startups have recently raised money with an alert for your industry and words like funded, investment and “venture capital”.
“network security” (funded OR investment OR “venture capital”)

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