The May Survey Results Are In

At the beginning of this month, I posted a poll here asking you what tools/resources (multiple if applicable) you found to be most helpful to you in your job search. Although this wasn't necessarily the most scientific poll, I was hoping to get a glance into what job seekers were finding to be useful to their job search efforts. I'd like to thank those of you who did respond (21 of you in all), as the results of this survey defied conventional wisdom. How so?

• The major job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) were most helpful according the this survey (42%). I don't doubt that the major job boards were the most helpful in finding job listings, I'm curious if the sentiment is the same for what happened after a resume was submitted via major job board? Conventional wisdom says that most people are very dissatisfied with the process after they apply for a position online.
• Social media was next (38%). Perhaps not surprising considering that this poll was hosted on a blog, and that traffic to the poll was partially generated by Twitter. Regardless, I'm happy to see this, but curious exactly how the respondents found this social media to be helpful.
• Employee referrals were fourth in the poll (28%), which was particularly surprising considering that most employers and job seekers will tell you that employee referrals are the most effective way to match job seekers and jobs. That's certainly the case here at McGladrey.
• Employment agencies/Headhunters came in fifth at 14%, possibly a sign of the times in that employers are a little more hesitant to pay search fees? Or could it be another reason?
• Finally, I found it surprising that search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live/Bing.com) came in last at 9%. There has been alot communicated in the recruitment community of late as to how more and more job seekers are using search engines to search for jobs these days. Maybe the numbers are still not as prevalent as are led to believe?

Thanks again for those of you who responded to this survey. I would like to encourage you comment and provide some more detail here regarding why you selected the tools/resources that you did. If you didn't respond to the survey, but still have some comments that you would like to share, I would encourage you to share those thoughts with us as well.

Keep your eyes and ears open for a new survey later this week!