Friday, March 20, 2020

How to optimize your job listings for Google searches

How to optimize your job listings for Google searches By now, you’re probably pretty familiar with terms like â€Å"search engine optimization† (SEO), and have been working toward getting the most keyword bang for your buck in your organization’s job posts. As a rule, Google has made us all think more about how to get what we want out of a search, or how to make sure our content is near the top of the list. Now Google is unleashing the next phase of that: Google for Jobs, a dedicated search tool for job seekers.lWhat is Google for Jobs, exactly?Google for Jobs is a search tool first rolled out in 2017, continually growing and expanding as Google adds new features. It’s an enhanced search algorithm that aggregates active job listings from career sites and job boards, cherry-picking them to match your search criteria. Users can filter jobs based on the job category, location, date posted, and the company information. The search function doesn’t (yet?) have the capability of helping the user to apply for said jobs, but instead directs the user to apply through either job sites (where one might already have an account/saved resume) or directly at the company itself.Google for Jobs gets updated job listing information through â€Å"crawls,† or automated searches conducted by Google. The crawl searches company career sites directly, as well as job boards and other recruiting forums.How can organizations optimize their listings?If you want your jobs to feature prominently in user searches, that means more than maxing out your SEO keywords.Be visible.The first step is making sure that Google’s webcrawling robots can find your job listings to include them in users’ search results. One way to do this is to integrate directly with Google, if your company has its own Careers site. You should make sure that your site is not protected by a robots.txt file or robots meta tag, and that Googlebots can crawl your site.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973 c5', {});Make sure you have enough information in your listings.At a minimum, Google for Jobs requires the following info in a job listing in order to include it in search results:Company nameSpecific job title (like â€Å"Waiter† or â€Å"Feline Aerodynamics Engineer†)Job description, at least one paragraph in length and formatted in HTMLJob locationPosting dateExpiration date of the posting (if applicable)Without that information, your listing is not going to make the cut. If you want to take your listings to the next level, best practices should also include:Type of employment (full-time, part-time, contract basis, etc.)Salary range or a specific number, including currency typeThe job’s requisition number in your Application Tracking System (ATS)Check your reputation.Google is rolling out new Google for Jobs features all the time, and recently that has included pulling company reviews from sites like Glassdoor. If you haven’t already, it’s time to do a survey of what people are saying about your company on employment review sites. Poor reviews can affect your Google for Jobs performance, and discourage potential applicants as well.Standardize your logoThis is especially important if you’re going through third-party sites. You want to make sure that you’re uploading consistent, high-quality images of your logo to any sites that are going to be included in Google for Jobs crawls. Big, clear logos look much better in search results than small and/or blurry ones, and you want to stand out for all the right reasons.If you’re looking for a way to boost the visibility of your job listings, Google for Jobs is a great way to do that. By making some minimal tech tweaks and investing time in your recruitment narrative, this is a feature that will help you reach the applicants you want.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

10 Super Weird College Majors Youve Never Heard Of

10 Super Weird College Majors Youve Never Heard Of You have a passion for something, but you aren’t sure whether there’s a major for that. We’re in an exciting, evolving time now where, depending on where you choose to study, you can kind of go your own way. There are tons of weird, but cool- and real- majors out there for you to explore and extend what drives you. So pick your passion, follow your bliss, and major in something that matters to you. Here are 10 of the weirdest and the coolest ones we’ve found.1. Adventure EdIf you go to Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, you can take courses in Rock Climbing, Canoe Paddling, Wilderness Expedition, etc. in preparation to help teach kids, adults, at-risk populations, and yourself to have challenging experiences in the great outdoors. Your job prospects include working for outdoor education at state or national parks, or even outdoor adventure programs the world over.2. BagpipingShow your Scottish roots- at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, yo u can major in Bagpipe Performance. The major has been around for 75 years.3. Canadian StudiesAt Duke University in North Carolina, it’s not all about American Studies. You can study the literature, politics, and culture of the giant country to the north- regardless of whether or not you hail from there. Learn, in-depth, about our neighbors!4. AuctioneeringThink you’d make a great auctioneer? If you go to Harrisburg Area Community College in Pennsylvania and study things like Audience Communications, Auctioneering Law, Procurement and Appraisal of Merchandise, and Preparations for the Auction, you’ll prep yourself for a very specific career. Job prospects: obvious!5. The BeatlesNo, really. At Liverpool Hope University in the UK, you can â€Å"examine the significance of the music of The Beatles in the construction of identities, audiences, ethnicities and industries, and localities.† Job prospects: Beatles historian (yes, apparently that is a thing) or Po pular Music Studies specialist.6. CitrusIf you go to Florida Southern University, where citrus farming is key, you can learn all you need to know about planting, irrigating, weed managing, pruning, fertilizing, pest controlling, and all other general citrus tree managing. Job prospects are surprisingly numerous: work for large citrus production companies, grove service companies, agricultural cooperatives, juice processing plants, agrochemical and fertilizer companies, or at citrus research facilities.7. Comic ArtComic arts are a real art these days. Study History, Concepts, Storytelling, Print Web Publishing, Composition, Character Development, etc. at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, then take a job at comic studios as a cartoonist, illustrator or author or in comic book art production.8. EgyptologyLove mummies? At Brown University in Rhode Island, you can prepare yourself for a career as an Egyptologist, historian, or specialized archaeologist by studying all things An cient Egyptian and Mesopotamian.9. Farrier ScienceLearn how to shoe horses at Mesalands Community College in New Mexico. Enjoy courses such as Equine Anatomy and Physiology, Horseshoeing Theory, Blacksmithing, then find yourself your dream career as a self-employed farrier, or work in equine or agricultural industries.10. Pop CultureAre you that person who knows everything about pop culture and doesn’t really care much about anything else? There’s a degree for you at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Your course load would include things like Intro to Popular Culture or Popular Culture and Media, Black Popular Culture, Television as Popular Culture, Folklife and Material Culture, and History of Popular Literature. And a wide variety of careers might be open to you, including positions in advertising, public relations, journalism, mass media (management, performance, production and marketing), teaching, library and museum work. It never hurts to be a well-rounded person who knows a ton about what’s going on around you.