Using Twitter to Enhance Your Job Search

Did you know you can use Twitter to enhance your job search? That’s right, Twitter! And what’s more, you don’t even need a Twitter account to do it. By now you’re probably thinking, “Okay, he’s lost it. How in the world can a 140 character text message help in my job search.” Stand by. You might be surprised.

Search.Twitter.Com is a direct link to the Twitter search engine. You do not need a Twitter account to use it.  Today, many recruiters and hiring managers tweet about available job openings, sometimes before they are posted to job boards. The tweet usually contains a tiny hyperlink to the actual job description and application process.

For example, go to search.twitter.com and type “IT director jobs” without the quotes in the search criteria textbox. Click the search button and within seconds you’ll return a list of tweets in a results set that matches your search criteria. I performed this search today as I wrote this article and on the first page of results I see a listing for an Assistant Director IT Project Management at Ernst & Young in Cleveland, OH. As you scan the results list, you will literally find pages of job posting tweets containing your search words, many of them just minutes old. The Ernst and Young position was tweeted just 3 minutes before I did the search.

So how do you capitalize from Twitter searches if you find a job posting that interests you? Make sure you say in your cover letter, “I saw your tweet.” Why? Because using Twitter to announce job postings is a bit…let’s say…unconventional? It’s very likely the recruiter or hiring manager who sent the tweet raised a few eyebrows amongst his/her peers when s/he told them what s/he was doing. By saying “I saw your tweet,” you are accomplishing at least two important validation tasks.

First, you’re making the recruiter or hiring manager look good. That person went out on a limb to try something unconventional and it worked. They received responses from qualified candidates for their job posting of which you are one.

Second, you’ve validated the recruiter or hiring manager’s ideas. If for nothing else, you just made that person’s day. You’ve confirmed that their unconventional approach works. How? You’ve applied for the position. By validating them, you’ve probably just moved to the top or near to the top of the list of prospective candidates. Or at the very least, they will certainly take a good, close look at your qualifications.

The news outlets have been reporting that this country has never in history suffered such a deep recession and such a flat recovery. With reported unemployment hovering over 9%, there is a lot of competition to find your next position. Thinking out of the box these days is essential to finding your new role. Be creative and use every tool at your disposal.

Best Practices for Job Hunting in the 21st Century—Part 2

This continues the discussion of job hunting best practices as discussed by a cross-functional networking group that met at Colonial JobSeekers, Cary, NC on Monday, October 18, 2010.

Giant Fortune Cookie—Also Known as Thinking Outside The Box, this one got the person hired. A candidate did her homework and found out the hiring manager of the target job in the company she was targeting absolutely loved Chinese food. The candidate had a giant fortune cookie made and sent it to her prospective hiring manager. Rolled up inside the fortune cookie—her résumé! The candidate’s creativity so impressed the hiring manager that she was called in for the interview and got the job. I landed a big job once thinking outside the box as well. Instead of sending out my normally formatted résumés, I rewrote my résumé as a colorful tri-fold brochure on very expensive paper I bought from Paper Direct. The front cover said, “Look no further. The best has just applied!” I was hired for a 2-month contract assignment at AT&T Consumer Sales Division which was extended to more than a year. The hiring manager said he received over 200 résumés for the job on the first day. As soon as he saw my brochure, it went right to the top of the heap and I landed the position. Thinking outside the box will get you noticed, hopefully in a positive way.

Information Interviews—One of the best ways to gather information about your target companies is to ask someone. Information interviews involve talking with people who are currently working in your target field to gain a better understanding of an occupation or industry—and to build a network of contacts in that field. The person who brought up this best practice locates popular coffee shops and lunch destinations proximal to the companies he’s targeting. At break times he visits these shops and strikes up conversations with people working at the company to learn whatever he can about their culture and hiring practices.

Job Fairs—If you’ve never been to a job fair, it is an experience not to be missed. There’s nothing better than meeting recruiters face-to-face. At least twice, I’ve been given 45-minute interviews right on the spot, both at the same job fair. There’s something about adding your appearance and personality to the presentation of your résumé that attracts peoples’ attention. The job fair I attended was in Boston. Senior-level recruiters were present from companies all over New England. The job fair targeted IT staff positions. I achieved IT Director status in a major corporation and hadn’t done any hands-on development work for about 4 years, but I went anyway. I visited the booth from ESPN and started discussing my background. The senior recruiter asked me to step outside with him and told me he had just received requests for three Senior Director or Executive Director positions, but that the positions had not yet been approved. He wanted to get me in his queue so we could be ready to move forward should they get approved. We talked for almost an hour. A month later, I received an email from the recruiter explaining the positions had been cancelled. At the same job fair, a recruiter from a company in New Hampshire said my resume was the senior-most IT résumé he had seen all day. As he looked it over, he mentioned that there was a discussion at his company that they might start recruiting to hire a CIO in the near future. He said the discussions were in the early stages and their was nothing concrete yet. Nevertheless, we spoke for about 45 minutes. The job never materialized. The point to all this is that when you attend a job fair, prepare and dress to be interviewed on the spot.

Keep Skills Current—When you finally land an interview and a recruiter or hiring manager is holding your résumé in his/her hand and asks, “What have you been doing since you lost your last position?” What are you going to say? It’s critical at this juncture that you demonstrate that you’ve been actively keeping your skill set current. For my example, even though I haven’t worked as a hands-on application developer for some time, I am keeping both my development and management skills current. I’ve taught myself how to write applications for the Android operating system, popular in the smartphone and tablet PC world. For the management skills, I have been appointed to leadership positions in volunteer groups and am a member of an executive round-table. What are you doing? How can you show that you’ve been keeping your skills current or learning new skills during your transition period?

Networking & Seminars—Attend as many networking events and seminars as you can. In the Raleigh area, they are all over the place. Are you on LinkedIn? Do you belong to groups specific to your geographic location on LinkedIn? If not, you ought to be. Networking has led me to land public speaking engagements and meet some very interesting people I might not have met elsewhere. Most networking events are free, but there are some that charge a nominal fee. The idea is to introduce yourself at a networking event and then get alone with a person of interest over a cup of coffee later to discuss synergies. It’s kind of like speed dating with the intent of landing a position. If there are no networking events in your area, start one. You might be surprised where it could lead.

Pay It Forward—The concept of paying it forward was popularized in a 2000 movie of the same name starring Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt and Jay Mohr. The idea of paying it forward has been documented to exist from as early as 317 BC. In his 1841 essay Compensation, Ralph Waldo Emerson,  wrote: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody." Paying it forward is giving to others. As we get out and network, keep in mind that it’s not all about you. It is all about what we can do to help others. Case in point is something that happened just a few weeks ago in the IT Special Interest Group I lead at Colonial JobSeekers. A women visited us for the first time after being out of work for a number of years to raise her family. Reentering the job market after such a long period of absence is not easy. She formerly worked as a corporate technology trainer and wants to get back into teaching. Later that evening I received an email from another member of the group who said he landed an interview with, of all things, a tech training company. I asked if there were any opportunities for this new person. He forwarded her résumé to the hiring manager he was interviewing with. She landed a contract position teaching SharePoint. When we put the interests of others ahead of our own interests, paying it forward works. You’ll definitely receive dividends.

Well, it looks like I miscalculated how long I would have to write to share all of the best practices we discussed. So it looks like there’s going to have to be at least a Part-3 to this series. We have 11 more best practices to go and I’ll do my best to cover them in one more article.

Best Practices for Job Hunting in the 21st Century—Part 1

Despite the proliferation and ubiquity of technology, one of the best benefits to job hunting in today’s economy is networking. Not the social kind mind you, but really getting out to meet and greet people. It’s a great opportunity to engage with individuals you wouldn’t normally encounter in an every-day business-as-usual routine. I’m a very active networker. Almost every Monday you’ll find me at Colonial JobSeekers (CJS) in Cary, NC. An outreach ministry of Colonial Baptist Church, CJS has grown to become one of the largest and most trusted networking groups in the Triangle. If you live outside of North Carolina, the Triangle is the area comprising the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

One reason CJS is so popular is the diverse activities that take place. Generally, guest speakers are in at least once a month and training classes are offered every week for interviewing skills and LinkedIn. Other special training classes are held regularly as well, such as resume writing or the difference between W2s vs. 1099s, a common topic of interest for anyone considering a contract position. In addition to classes, we regularly segment into Special Interest Groups (SIG). I sit on the groups steering committee and facilitate the IT SIG which runs about 20-30 attendees.

This past Monday we did something different. We held cross-functional discussion groups. Normally SIGs are grouped according to chosen profession. The cross-function groups are distinctive in that attendees are randomly assigned to specified meeting rooms where facilitators await to guide the pre-planned discussion.

Normally, one can expect 200 or more attendees at CJS. For some reason, overall attendance was lower than usual this week which could be a very good sign the economy is improving. If job seekers aren’t showing up, it could mean they’re landing or at least getting interviews.

I volunteered to facilitate in Room 208. I had about 4-5 people show up. This is too small for a cross-functional discussion so I ended up merging my group with two other small groups and co-facilitated with Carol, a Meyers-Briggs facilitator and organizational development expert. In her 45-second elevator speech, she describes herself as a person who teaches adults to play nice with each other. (Don’t we all need that kind of training at times!)

We ended up with a group of about 20. The three-fold topic of the day is to give your 45-second elevator speech, share a blessing that came out of the unemployment situation and discuss best practices of the job hunt. Everyone has an opportunity to share what’s been working for them and what hasn’t been working for them. The discussion turned out to be an extremely fruitful and educational experience for us all. At the end of the day, we walked away with a list of 22 best practices to ponder and embrace as our own if we’re so inclined. Everyone, me included, left that room with new ideas and renewed energy.

The balance of this article and the full content of the next one contain descriptions of the best practices we discussed. You’ll find a lot of articles out there written by recruiters or other experts that highlight best practices from their professional perspective. That is not what this list is. This list is actual best practices being used by job hunters today to land interviews or open new doors of opportunity that might never have been available to them otherwise. The list is practical and sage. So let’s begin with Accountability Groups.

Accountability Groups—One principle taught in many leadership programs is the concept of a personal board of directors. A personal board of directors is a group of not more than 10-12 people who you readily trust. In fact, if you have 5-6 count yourself fortunate indeed. These may include your spouse or significant other, your closest friends and colleagues whose opinions you value. They have your best interest at heart. They watch your back and you watch theirs. One young lady shared that she uses this concept to help her stay on track with her job searching. It’s so easy to get distracted or discouraged these days, especially if you’ve been out of work for a long while. Your accountability group will hold you responsible for the goals you’ve set for yourself and help you remain focused.

Alumni Organizations—How many of your classmates do you stay in touch with? I’ll bet the answer lies somewhere between not many to more than a few. Unless you’re comfortable waiting for your next reunion, if you’re out of work reconnect with your classmates through your Alumni Association. You’ll never know if the nerd you once despised is in a position to introduce you to your next boss or could very well become your next boss.

Automated Job Agents—Virtually every job board has some sort of automated job agent. Instead of logging in and scanning hundreds of job postings each day, let your virtual headhunter do part of the job for you. Automated job agents are relatively easy to setup as long as you understand how to execute computer searches. You establish the search criteria, save it and schedule it to run at specified intervals. The results are sent to you in an email. Automated job agents are very useful if you are considering job markets outside your geographic location.

Bcc—One enterprising gentleman keeps in touch with the large number of recruiters he’s connected with on a weekly basis using his email program’s Bcc feature. Not sure what Bcc means? It means blind carbon copy.  In the context of correspondence, blind carbon copy refers to the practice of sending a message to multiple recipients in such a way that it conceals individual email addresses from the complete list of recipients. To see it work, put your own email address in the “To:” field and everyone else in the “Bcc:.” Some email clients don’t display the Bcc field automatically so you may think you don’t have one, but rest assured you do. When you send the email, it will appear as though you sent it to yourself even though everyone in the Bcc received it. Take the time to learn how to use Bccs within your email client.

Employment Security Commission Professionals—In North Carolina, all issues related to employment or unemployment as the case may be, fall under the oversight of the Employment Security Commission or ESC. The goal of every professional working for the ESC is to help the underemployed or unemployed find work. And they have access to resources that the common person cannot get their hands on such as inside information on job postings. One service the ESC can provide is to tell you the name of the hiring manager for almost any job posting within the state. That’s valuable information to have as you plan your follow-ups. Your state may have similar services to North Carolina’s. Take advantage of it if you can. The ESC professionals are here to help you. Schedule a one-on-one appointment with an ESC professional to learn how the agency can help you in your particular circumstance.

Well, that’s it for today. I’ll complete the list of best practices in my next post.

The New King of Beasts – The LinkedIn LION

In one of the first conversations I had with the Editorial Director of a major publishing house about my book, she asked if I did any kind of social networking or blogging to help self-promote myself. This was back in December of 2009 and at that time I had to say, “No.” My entire social networking experience up to that point was a single LinkedIn account with an unfinished profile and 255 personal contacts made over the course of my professional life. In January I decided to “test the waters” of social networking to see how successful I could be in “building my network.”

The first thing I did was finish my LinkedIn profile and began joining groups. I created a blog on WordPress, opened a facebook account and joined the opennetworker.com website. Actually, I have three more blogs that are identical to the WordPress blog. WordPress is my main blog site and the statistics I’ll be reporting are all from that site alone. The other sites either don’t track stats or don’t make them available.

Opennetworker.com is an incredibly useful resource. Let me quote from the opennetwork.com website:

OpenNetworker.com is THE secret of how to build larger, more diverse, and more valuable networks on the world's top social networking sites.

People who are part of OpenNetworker.com are people like you - people who know the incredible value of being open to new opportunities and new connections.

They are the most helpful and connected people on any social networking site.

By enrolling in the opennetworker service you place you name on invitation lists to any of the major social networking sites you choose. Before you sign up for a social networking site, make sure you are actually a member of that site first. When I signed up, I used the open networker list for LinkedIn to send out my first 1,500 invitations. In one week, I jumped from my 255 connections to over 2,000! Almost everyone accepted although I did have a very small number of bounced invitations because of bad email addresses. About 200 people didn’t respond at all. Opennetworker.com is not free. There is a small, highly affordable annual charge to use the resource.

You may not be aware of this, but LinkedIn has a cap on the number of invitations you are allowed to send out. The limit is 3,000. The real secret to becoming a LION, which is an acronym for LinkedIn Open Networker, is to attract people to you! Three thousand invitations run out rather quickly. After you run out, LinkedIn will increase the number in increments of 500, but getting them to do so is as easy as extracting teeth without anesthetic. As of today, I have 4,756 LinkedIn contacts which gives me a network with over 1.3 million at the second level. Sixteen percent of these contacts are in the IT industry. for someone who has just written an IT book, this is a huge potential market of over 200,000 people!

You may be asking, “How did he build such a huge network in a few short months?” Here’s how I did it. During the month of January I wrote 25 blog posts on an eclectic variety of topics. That month I had 625 readers with 80 recorded on the highest day. I didn’t write any blog posts from the end of January until May 14th. This is when I was writing my book. Even so, I had 186 readers during the quiet months. Since May I’ve had 908 readers to date. This is a total of 1,719 readers since starting my blog. Since I have no way of knowing the numbers the other sites produce, this metric may be significantly higher. For an author this is most encouraging!

Every time I write a blog article, I post a link to it on LinkedIn, Facebook (714 friends) and tweet it on Twitter (236 followers). I also post in various LinkedIn groups if the topic is appropriate to the groups’ posting rules. Always obey group posting rules. I generally see a spike in the number of readers on posting days, sometimes reaching 50 or more. Besides the blog posts, I also answer as many expert questions as I can on LinkedIn and participate in as many group discussions as possible. A polite introduction of yourself is welcome in most groups. Using this strategy I get more than 100 invites per week and build my overall network by over 20,000 per week. I estimate I’ll go over the 5,000 contacts mark by the end of September.

I’ve heard a lot of people stand up at networking groups in the Raleigh area to introduce themselves and mention they only accept LinkedIn invitations from people they’ve met personally. While I understand this is their preference, I believe its not a forward thinking preference. These folks generally fear they’ll be inundated with spam. There certainly is a small percentage of spam that reaches you, but from my experience, the percentage really is miniscule.

Open networking has allowed me to meet people, make new friends and has led to diverse opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Since I became an open networker, I’ve received invitations to speak, have met some very interesting and successful people over breakfast, coffee or lunch and have had doors open for me that I didn’t know existed. The one common characteristic that I’ve observed of all open networkers that I’ve met is their willingness to help others succeed. If an open networker can open a door for you, he/she will. And so will I.