I was emailing with a friend in Boston that I used to work with. She’s a recruiter and she commented that she reads my blog. I asked her if there was any topic she would like to see, and her response was, "make sure I can find them!"
"Them" is candidates. She wasn’t referring to job boards like Monster, but more about networking sites such as Plaxo, LinkedIn, or other online places. For example, if anyone runs a search on my name, this blog is one of the top searches that comes up. Anyone can leave me a message that I get in my email. My "footprint" is everywhere.
I’ve advised any number of people to write a professional or special interest blog. It does a number of things. It establishes *your* internet identity. It also allows you to expound on current subjects in your profession or topics of interest, which leads you to become a subject matter expert and "findable" when a recruiter runs a search on the subject.
Make sure you have a bio page on your blog. It doesn’t have to be a full on resume, but a list of the sorts of professional positions you have had and the companies you have worked at. This helps the recruiter verify that it, indeed, you that they are looking for.
Do you have a Facebook page? If you don’t, you are seriously missing out on the opportunities recruiters use to reach out to potential candidates. Here’s a hint: anyone can send you a message on FB, and if you come up in a search for a specific skill set, or perhaps you have an old resume in a database with a defunct email address or an old phone number then FB may be the best/easiest way to get hold of you.
So, if you want to found, make yourself visible to the people you want to find you.