Does anyone here apply to jobs from career sites like Monster.com? I was just wondering if it would pay off to apply and sell the benefits of a virtual employee.

I don't because I am trying to sell myself as a business, not an employee.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Ditto to that! I've never seen a single listing for anything other than employee (onsite or off) on sites like Monster etc.

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I'm a little confused...I see what you're saying about not applying to monster.com because you're not positioning yourself as an employee, but then I've heard of other VAs who encourage applying to job postings on places like craigslist.org. Most of those listings are also looking for employees, from what I've seen, and I thought the big challenge is convincing them to consider using a virtual assistant.

If you don't apply to places like monster.com or craigslist, do you use other sites to find prospects, like freelance job sites? Any recommendations?

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"

I respond to craigslist ads as a business, not a potential employee. It is a different scenario to respond to a listing on craigs list (which is kind of a free-for-all) than to a career-specific site like monster - IMHO

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Lily - I was wondering if that was the case. Thanks for the explanation!

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"

I respond to both Craigslist and Career Sites, as well as any local job search sites...but as a business owner, not an employee.....you never know who you might find that is advertising for an employee, but would also be open to a VA as a solution!

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

I do the same as well. I respond as a business, not an employee. I have had people call me back so it's worth it to check those sites out here and there. But just make sure your marketing is spread out over other avenues as well. I have found that a good mix of marketing has worked well for me.

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

Originally Posted by VBP

I do the same as well. I respond as a business, not an employee. I have had people call me back so it's worth it to check those sites out here and there. But just make sure your marketing is spread out over other avenues as well. I have found that a good mix of marketing has worked well for me.

Supportmyoffice, thanks for asking this question! I was actually wondering about doing the same thing but I wasn't sure how to go about it or if I should at all.

Deb, Goddess, VBP, when you answer job ads how do you approach it? Is there something special that you say? Do you just send your standard marketing letter? Also a lot of the contact information from job ads is direct to the HR department. How do you get around that? One of my reservations about trying this type of marketing was that I figured an HR person would simply trash it. Thanks for the feedback!

I only respond to CL ads. I start with something along the lines of "In response to your ad for a **, I would like to introduce myself and my company. My name is..." I then go on to explain about my company, the advantages of working with a VA, and how that relates to their job listing.

Originally Posted by rhonmanning

Deb, Goddess, VBP, when you answer job ads how do you approach it? Is there something special that you say? Do you just send your standard marketing letter? Also a lot of the contact information from job ads is direct to the HR department. How do you get around that? One of my reservations about trying this type of marketing was that I figured an HR person would simply trash it. Thanks for the feedback!

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"