I’ve recently found that your best bet for getting noticed as a candidate for a job is not to reply to postings put out by a company on job boards and in newspaper ads. You have to be more creative than this! There are far more people than their are jobs, so standing out can be hard, but doable. My suggestion? Get on Twitter. Not only is this site amazing for a variety of things (though, it’s often hard to define exactly what Twitter is to an outsider), but it can be ideal for your job search! Think about it, how else are you going to get the chance to directly message a single person at a company you’re interested in? It can be nearly impossible, but Twitter makes this happen.
Some things to consider before trying:
1. Be active on your Twitter account for some time before contacting potential employers. You may even want to only “tweet” about things relevant to the industry you’re in, or looking to enter. Tweets about your personal life, your weekend plans, how your stomach is feeling should be avoided. Create a persona for yourself that a potential employer can use to learn a bit about you, your areas of interest/specialties, and your contribution to the industry.
2. Follow others in your area of interest. This one’s easy as the search.twitter.com function allows you to put in keywords and names so you can quickly follow people who pique your interest. This is important so you can stay abreast of all things going on in your industry, and may look impressive to an employer.
3. Contribute relevant content in your tweets. Show you provide value to your industry by demonstrating that you read up on, and distribute interesting and relevant articles, blog posts, videos, etc. Your future employer may even learn something from your tweets!
Once you have those 3 areas covered, now is the time to figure out the best way to contact an employer. This can be the hardest part for many people, but the internet is good about being pretty darn ananymous. So just say something. Figure out the tone of the company, and send them a direct message on Twitter. This is your chance to be blunt and honest (you’re only given 140 characters to say what you need to say, so there’s really no other choice here). So just spit it out. Tell them you want to work for them, tell them you think they could use coverage in another part of the country, tell them they look like they need you on their team…the more creative, the better. They could be getting 100’s of replies and direct messages a day, so you have to grab their attention.
The beauty of Twitter is that it it not all that widely used yet, so by using this tool to communicate with a potential employer, it demonstrates creativity, determination and your knowledge of an up-and-coming internet communication tool.
Happy Tweeting!
mark_IT: Put yourself out there. You never know what can happen.
Speak.