So how do people find out about open brewing jobs? In the dark ages, a company would put a sign in the window, a current employee would reach out to you, or they would put an ad in the paper. There used to be an entire section of the local paper devoted to employers seeking employees. Ask your folks!
With the invention of the Internet, the cost of job postings and speed of getting the information out there have both been improved. So now, people find out about brewery careers primarily through on-line job boards.
Job boards come in several shapes and sizes. Typically, a company will have a page on their website devoted to “Jobs”, “Employment”, or “Careers” where they advertise their open positions.
Now, depending on the size of the organization they may have a short or a long reach. For example, Coors will have a much larger initial audience than say, 2 Dogz and a Guy Brewing although I like their name is pretty cool.
Next there are job boards like Indeed and Monster who cater to basically any company that wants to post an open position.
Then there are specialty or niche job boards like, wait for it…… BreweryJobs.com where we specialize in roles related to the beer and beverage industry. Sure, we have the occasional role for an Accountant, but the job will be with a company in the beer or beverage industry.
Finally, most professional organizations or associations have a board. For example Brewers Association sometimes these boards are free and some times they are only accessible through a membership. (Can you find it on this website?)
SEARCHING FOR JOBS
Ok, now that you have a basic understanding about job boards, how can you utilize them effectively? Most boards have three key elements you want to utilize.
- Search for open roles
- Keywords
- Posting a resume to their resume database
- Setting up a “Job Alert” or “Search Agent”
Search
Once you get to the job board, you will want to find the search page. Normally there will be two options for searching. You should be able to search for a position by keyword, job title, or company name. So you might look for the position of “brewer”, or you could look for a job in a “brewery” or you could search by “Karbach”.
Now you may not be interested in positions over 50 miles from your home because you don’t want to drive that far, or you may not be interested in relocating from your current home. So, in order to narrow down the number of results, you may want to add a city in the Location field. Obviously, the larger the city, the more results you will uncover. Now if you are in smaller suburb, you might also consider just putting the name of the state in the location field.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up and try different searches. Different keywords WILL provide you with different results.
Job Search Agents or Saved Searches
Who wants to spend their time running searches every day to uncover open positions? Not me. Once you have developed a search (or several – hint hint) that work for you, there is normally an opportunity to save the search and automate getting the results. By utilizing the Saved Search or Job Search Agents, you can get email alerts as new roles come online. I recommend a daily alert so that you have an idea of when it will arrive and you don’t miss being alerted to these opportunities.
Pro Tip I recommend you utilize multiple searches.
Pro Tip Keep in mind, when companies post jobs they have budgets and time to consider. Not every company has the manpower or CASH to use EVERY available job board. By using multiple boards, you dramatically increase your knowledge of open roles.
Posting Your Resume
Most larger companies have Recruiters or HR people that post their open roles at a minimum on the company’s website and probably on one or two job boards. HOWEVER, depending on budget, all open jobs probably will NOT be posted on every job board.
However, these Recruiters and HR folks may be actively looking for people. So, if their advertising isn’t as effective, they may have to go seek out people. Since these Job Boards typically have a Resume Data Base, make sure you upload your resume so that whoever is looking for talent can find you. The BreweryJobs.com resume database is located here.
Pro Tip make sure you are comfortable posting your information out there for the world to see. There is always the potential that your HR team or manager may stumble across it.
Final Thoughts
If you have read my previous posting on resume preparation, you will understand why keywords are so very important to your efforts.
As you peruse the various job descriptions you run across, make note of keywords and terms that are mentioned in the descriptions. A lot of people realize after looking at some descriptions that there are keywords, terms, and industry verbiage they forgot to mention that they could legitimately add to their resumes.