When a baby boomer friend was searching for a job, his elderly dad said \”Look in the newspaper classifieds\”. Since I haven\’t picked up a newspaper in quite a while, I\’m not sure they even still have job listings there.

With so many people unemployed in all age ranges, it made me curious how different generations conduct job searches. I was surprised to hear that Boomers use social networks more than Gen X and Gen Y, who tend to go with Google +.

All generations value job security, which seems to be harder to come by these days. Boomers tend to gravitate towards more meaningful work, while millennials value a higher salary and more flexibility.

Job seekers in all generations spend between 5 and 20 hours a week looking for a job. As a small business owner and freelancer I spend twice that amount of time looking for work, because the minute you finish one job you have to start looking for the next one. You\’re always juggling the clients you have, and at the same time you\’re always looking for more clients and customers.

What surprised me the most is that 95% of all job seekers in all generations were searching online, while spending only 5% searching offline. This leads me to think that we\’re losing the ability to connect to a real, live human being. People are actually surprised when I call on the phone. I like to make some kind of human connection first.

I still believe the best way to get a job is by meeting someone face to face. The one thing you can never get across in a text or email is personality. If I\’m hiring someone, that\’s the number one thing I want to see.