Those of you in full job search mode right now can benefit from a wealth of online resources when trying to land a great job. Don’t let the current economic status hold you back because if you look, there are jobs out there, and many of them are posting them online… and not just at monster.com.
|
If you’re worried that your resume is getting lost in the sea of data on the job sites, here are a few ways you can rise to the top and stand out by using sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. Oh yea, I said Twitter. You thought I was over it by now huh? Not a chance.
Let’s start your job hunt with LinkedIn. It’s like one big online networking event. Just keep getting connected to people and looking for opportunities. LinkedIn can be used as a sort of online resume as well, since it highlights your experience, skills, and even allows others to recommend you, so make sure you get as many good recommendations as possible on your profile. Get former employers, co-workers, clients and colleagues to recommend you on LinkedIn. There’s nothing better than a glowing review from someone other than yourself.
One thing you can try is LinkedIn Groups. Go to your LinkedIn account, then choose “Search Groups” from the drop down menu there. Then enter keywords related to your field in the search box. I recommend joining groups both in your field, as well as job search related. So, search for things like “IT jobs”, “system administration”, “graphic design”, “job recruiters” etc. When you join those groups, you can choose to be notified by email daily or weekly of questions asked within that group. Often, people will post jobs in these groups. They will also post questions as well, so if you have the time to answer a question or two, it helps make you look knowledgeable and can help you stand out.
In LinkedIn, you can also choose “Search Jobs” from that drop down menu at the top. So, do the same type of searches for your field and interests. You may find some good listings there, and by having a strong LinkedIn profile, that can help you stand out.
As for Twitter, this site’s following is growing incredibly fast, so opportunities are being posted more and more here as well. First of all, sign up for a Twitter account. Once you’re connected, make sure you create an avatar for yourself, and even a custom background. You can Google “free twitter backgrounds” or “create twitter backgrounds” to find all sorts of sites where you can get help in customizing your profile page. This just helps you stand out and shows that you are committed to presenting yourself well online. In short, it makes ya look good. You wouldn’t go to a job interview in sweats now would you? Dress up your page, just like you would dress yourself up for that interview.
Once you’ve got your account, start looking for followers. There are a lot of ways to do this. Here are a few:
- Start with accounts that you already know. Do you have colleagues, friends, former co-workers, clients, etc. who have a twitter account? Stalk… I mean… follow them. How about local news stations, businesses, etc.? Stalk.. er, follow them too.
- Look at accounts that you like, and then follow some of the people that are following them, or people that they are following.
- Use twitter’s search function to type in keywords like “job”, “employ”, “recruit”, etc. to find profiles that use keywords like this in their name or description. Follow the ones that seem to be affiliated with job recruiting services in some way.
- Use twellow.com to search the employment category and follow people who are involved in job search, recruitment, etc.
- Look at the pages of some of the job recruiters and watch who they reply to (replies are when someone puts the @ symbol in front of a user name). Click on those links (@username) and see if they are someone you want to follow too.
- As you become engaged in these conversations, it will snowball. Just keep following people who seem to be useful in your job search.
- Go to search.twitter.com and search for various keywords – IT jobs, recruiting, employment, even type in the city/cities you wish to work in and the word “job”. I.E. “Denver IT Job” or “Denver system admin”. You’ll see a list of all the “tweets” that include those keywords. There’s a few things you can do with this: follow those that seem to be posting job info, answer a call for an open position, reply to someone who has a question that you can answer. Again, this gets you involved and helps you make some quality connections. You’re already on your way to looking great online! Yea, that’s you standing there in that fancy Armani suit, ready to accept that dream job offer.
The key here is to get yourself out there and start making quality connections. With Twitter, it’s a great way to get in and show your personality and catch some attention. Then, if you’re following the right people, you’ll start seeing job postings and hopefully something that you’re interested in.
And if all this isn’t overwhelming enough, I’m sure the thought of checking Twitter every 5 minutes to review all the recent messages seems like a big hassle. Well, there’s an app for that. Oh no, did I just say that? Must have seen one too many iPhone commercials. Anyway, it’s called Tweetdeck. there’s others, but I like this one, so I recommend it. You can download it free at tweetdeck.com. I keep mine running all day long while I’m on the computer (which is a lot. Stop making fun of me. I know I’m a nerd.) and I just glance over every now and then at the messages as they pop up.
For your job search goals, you’ll want to keep an eye on the job postings, but also try to get in and answer questions, add a little to the conversation, etc. Tweetdeck is a great way to keep up on everything that the people you’re following are saying and you can respond right away if something of interest comes across.
If you have used other social media sites for your job search, please feel free to share your stories with us! And if you’ve successfully landed a job, then by all means tell us all about it and comment below.
The opportunities are out there if you know where to look. And with the use of social networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter, you can have a little more fun doing it. So put on your best virtual outfit and go out there and get that dream job! And when you land it, you don’t have to send me any gifts. Just a thank you card will do.