Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

The hiring market is bleak. Last week over 1,000 lawyers were laid off. Companies are not hiring. Students are unable to get jobs. Recruiting is down. Competition for the few available jobs is up.

In a job market like this, you need to use every tool available, including social media.

Many old fashioned career counselors advise students and professionals against using blogs, Facebook and other online social networking sites for fear that an employer will find out something about you that will take you out of the running.

I have news for you: it is a good thing when you are viewed as a person. In fact, it will help you get a job if you stand out as someone they “know, like and trust.” It is a bad thing if there are pictures of yourself doing anything that you wouldn’t want to pass around the office (i.e. crazy partying pictures and the like). But you are a professional. If that is what you post online, this article isn’t going to help you get a job anyway.

My best advice in searching for a job in a recession is to get on Twitter.

You approach a job search on Twitter as you would any other. Research and networking are the key to success.

Sign up:

For starters, sign up. Seems obvious, but reading through these tips won’t make sense unless you get on and look around a little bit.

Pick out a good name and use good a photo. You don’t have much room, but your name is your first impression. It is the first step in branding yourself, so try something like MediaMark. If you aren’t sure, use your real name.

It is hard to make connections without a real photo, so upload one right away. Resist the temptation to use an avatar or a photo of something obscure. Twitter is all about building relationships, and you don’t want there to be anything standing in your way of doing that.

Add your LinkedIn profile to the web site section. This way, as people are meeting you on Twitter, they will immediately be taken to your professional profile, which will help later in the job search process. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and includes recommendations. If you have something better, like a blog, add that instead. Make sure that it is professional and is something you would want prospective employers to immediately see about you and your accomplishments.

Research:

In any good job search, you must be very good at researching the industry you are targeting. You want to know what the best companies are, what the hot topics are, who the players and the industry trends are. On Twitter, it is really easy to do just that. In a way, it is like being a fly on the wall at a party with all the heavy hitters talking to each other, and you get to listen in.

A great way to start researching your industry is by using the search function at the bottom of the Twitter screen. Here you can put in a search term, like “lawyer,” “marketing” or “media” and start to read the tweets of people posting in those areas. If there is a particular term or subsection you want to listen in on, put that in as well. Then you can pick people to follow.

You will quickly find that the search function within Twitter has limiting properties. You might be ready for a more highly functioning search on Twitter. My favorite is Twellow. Check it out and do the same thing with respect to research. This time you are researching the people within a certain category or key word. This is a great way to locate industry experts.

Start by looking at their description and then look at how many followers they have. Then click on the person to read their tweets. This will give you a great idea if it is someone “in the know” in that industry. You can also research people by name here. While you are at it, look up yourself and put in an extended profile. It helps when people are looking for you. Be sure to use the key words you want to be found under.

Networking:

As with any network, it takes time to build one. In any networking situation, I always teach to be helpful to others first (even old school – person to person). So while on Twitter, you can start by re-tweeting things you like that are helpful to you and what you think would be helpful to others.

You do this by using the letters “RT” in front of what you are re-tweeting. But don’t rely on this solely or people won’t want to follow you. It is akin to being the guy at the party who always agrees and says, “Yeah, what he said.” You simply aren’t interesting.

On Twitter, be interesting. Have an opinion. Read the news related to your career and share the interesting pieces and ones that are helpful. Be first and your tweets will be RT.

Another thing to remember is that everyone on Twitter is a real person. So it is ok to direct message or reply to someone. Wait until you have been on Twitter a while and get a feel for the culture. Once you get the hang of it, this is a great way to meet highly influential people you might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet.

All in all, finding a job on Twitter is a lot like networking in person. You have to gain the know, like and trust factor of the people in your Twitter network before you can expect anyone to help you with your job search. Fortunately, it is much easier to do on Twitter than anywhere else. People are pretty nice if you follow Twitter etiquette.

You will be most successful in finding a job by being active in a targeted group of people in your career area. Listen in and participate as well.

Branding:

Much like a company, you are a brand. This is your reputation and how you are seen by others. In a job search, it is important to control that brand as much as possible. Think about how you want to be known. Are you a researcher? Great idea person? Full of solutions? What is the one thing you are really good at within your industry? Write it down and remind yourself of this quality when you sit down to use Twitter. Then, tweet accordingly.

Try to make at least 50% of the tweets you give be an example of how you are good at this. For example, if you want to be known as a great researcher, then spend time online researching different aspects of that industry and tweet what you learn.

You also want to be personable. Twitter has a casual tone to it, so you must post personal items about your life too. Try not to be too boring (just poured a cup of coffee) and definitely don’t post anything unprofessional or that would be a red flag in the hiring process. >

Summary:

Be interesting in life and with your informative tweets. Answer people who post questions, and RT things you like. Slowly but surely you will build up the know, like and trust factor. Then you can start asking around for possible jobs. Just like in the real world, it is better to ask for advice, not who is hiring.

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