Eightfold Workforce Exchange is dedicated to matching individuals who are seeking employment with companies that are actively hiring. In our last article, 3 Things to Check to Make Sure You’re Set Up For Job Seeking Success, we outlined why you want to maintain a profile that represents your full self, the benefit of receiving job matches, and how to review your job recommendation emails. In this article we will help you understand what it means to have job matches and how the Talent Exchange gives you the power to put your best foot forward.
Understand how you are representing yourself to recruiters through job matches
After you complete your profile, you can view open roles and receive emails with suggestions for jobs that align with your skills and experiences. These job matches will be a result of the information you self-reported in your profile and the inferences that the platform has made using its expansive analysis of different career paths.
The ability to view your job matches means you can finally understand how recruiters are interpreting your background. If the matches align with titles, industries, or seniority that you are interested in, then that means your profile represents you the way you would like it to. If the matches do not align, then that is a sign that you need to revisit your profile, and the Talent Exchange gives you the power to understand how to change it.
First, look to add more skills or descriptions to the work experience section of your profile. You may also want to add projects or relevant courses to the education section. The more well-rounded your profile is, the more relevant the matches should become. Second, you can view the relevant skills associated with jobs that you are interested in but not matched to. If those skills should have been included in your profile, then you can add them in. If you do not have those skills then you can purposefully work on developing them and then revisit those roles in the near future.
Takeaway: Workforce Exchange is providing you with the tools necessary to understand how you are representing yourself and enables you to make changes in real time.
Apply to jobs with greater confidence
Jobs that align with your profile will appear with a flag that identifies positions as a “good match” or “strong match.” When you click into the position you will see why you are a match, as well as information about the skills, years of experience, and prior companies of people who have held this role in the past. This replaces the need to read through long job descriptions with confusing language, and a guessing game to determine if it’s a job you should apply to.
In general, the uncertainty around whether you are a good match for the position may have motivated you to apply to dozens of different roles. On the Talent Exchange, you can have greater confidence applying to fewer jobs because you know which ones align with your background, meaning recruiters will be more likely to respond. Additionally, all the jobs on the platform are being actively hired for.
Takeaway: You no longer need to read through long and confusing job descriptions, and guess whether you are a good fit. The Talent Exchange gives you transparent insight into why you are a match so you can apply to quality roles, at companies that are actively hiring, with confidence.
Respond to outreach from hiring companies
Many of the hiring companies on the Talent Exchange receive frequent updates with candidates who are a match for their open roles. That means if a candidate sees that they are a match to a role, then the company will also see the candidate as a match.
It is best for candidates to be proactive and apply to jobs directly, but you should also keep an eye out for emails from hiring companies inviting you to apply to the roles. This means that companies can find candidates that match to their open roles even if you didn’t apply to the job yet.
Takeaway: Hiring companies receive ongoing updates with candidates who match to their open roles, even if the candidate has not already applied. That means to keep an eye out for messages from companies that you have applied to, as well as companies that are reaching out to invite you to apply.
