While some automation can be helpful, managing your job search manually (providing you’re an active job seeker versus a passive one) provides you with better results. If you’re a passive job seeker where your gainfully employed and mostly happy with your position and your employer,

then putting your search on autopilot makes better sense. I would only caution that if your resume is on the internet or on the job boards, and you receive calls and inquiries as to your interest for a particular job, as a professional courtesy, you owe the recruiter or hiring company a response, even if you’re not that intrigued by the job….After all, you put your resume out there to be seen. Now that you’ve been seen, reply with your true interest level.

There is numerous signup pages, email alerts, and job Alerts, and job agents offered by the different job boards which alert you of new postings that are supposed to match your skills with the available jobs, but I’ve found these are powered by software, and algorithms that often time can only match 2 items: Your physical location, and your Job Title, then it should show you jobs which match your skillset, but really there’s nothing sophisticated to match your true technical skills to the job. Lets think about it this way.. Would you accept a new job based solely on its location and a generic job title ? or would you first and foremost make sure that it was a direct fit to your technical skillset, then evaluate everything else after that. For these reasons, you want to choose your automatic resources carefully.

My firm, ERS Antenna uses a new and sophisticated Job Alert using Text Messaging, which is highly effective, is completely automated once you enter your technical skills, geographic preferences, and the seniority of the position that your seeking, then once new positions become available, you’re the first to hear about them instantly directly on your phone

Your final steps to automating your job search look like this:

1. Find a recruiting agency that truly specializes in YOUR industry, and then get in touch with one of their recruiters physically. No Text, social media reply or email will do here. Pick up your phone and dial. Let the recruiter know what your specialty is, which locations of the world that you will relocate to, and your salary requirements, and ask that they keep you in mind for future openings which meet your criteria
2. Sign up for Job alerts with a specialty recruiting agency, as well as through job aggregators like Indeed, Monster, NPA Worldwide or career builder
3. Check your Job Alerts when you see them and return ALL calls and job offers that are sent to you. If they don’t match your interests, then go back and modify your job alerts until your results are to your liking

Once your job search is on autopilot, you are more than half way to finding a great position.