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Rewriting the Rules of Job Search
How Twitter Can Help

By Susan Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan and Deb Dib
Note: This article contains excerpts from The Twitter Job Search Guide (JIST 2010)

Twitter. The word of the year for 2009, and at the top of the list for “fastest growing skills/job types” last year, per Indeed.com.

Does Twitter usurp all the established “rules” of job search? No. Is social media, with Twitter at the forefront, rewriting the rules of job search? It certainly has the potential to do so for many industries and professions!

For your job seekers who are conducting a search that incorporates social media strategies (which should be the majority of job seekers), here are 10 steps to guide them through the process, along with tips and tweets to leverage Twitter in their job search.

1. Assess Your Assets, Interests, and Priorities

Start with knowing who you are and figuring out the Master F.I.T.™ (your Function, Interests/Industry passions, and Things that Matter). Know what strengths you bring to the table, what industries or companies interest you, and what will be a deal-breaker if it’s not present in the job (for example, salary, commute, advancement opportunity, health benefits, boss, and so on).

Tip: Consider sending a tweet with the question: “How would you describe me in one word?”

This is a playful way to get feedback on how others view you. Oftentimes, you’ll hear important adjectives or nouns that reflect your key assets and strengths.

2. Align Your Assets with Market Needs

Several industries were decimated when the economy took a hit, and technology has made other jobs redundant or obsolete. One of your strengths may be underwater photography. If there’s no need for that in the marketplace, you’re (pardon the pun) dead in the water. You must know the market, including how employers are hurting or in need and where they need to be more productive and profitable.

Intersecting your assets with the bottom line will give you confidence and create demand for your services; you become the hunted and not the hunter. This can happen only when you do preliminary field research and talk to hiring managers to understand the trends, opportunities, problems, and projects they are facing. Then synthesize that information to determine a clear job search target that pinpoints the following: position; industry sector; company profile (size, corporate culture, public or private); geographic area; salary range; and type of gig (full-time, temporary, freelance).

Tip: Observe how others with similar interests present themselves on Twitter or other social media sites, such as LinkedIn.com. This can give you ideas on how to position yourself.

3. Articulate Your Assets into a Compelling Brand

Once you understand how your assets intersect with market needs, you’ll be able to articulate that into concise personal marketing materials (Twitter bio, resume, inquiry letters, and so on). This value prop must be woven throughout your resume, networking sound bites, and behavioral interviewing response stories.

Tip: Practice weaving the “short form”-the less-is-more, abbreviated style of Twitter into all of your writing and speaking. Employers love candidates who can convey the essence of information clearly and concisely.

4. Target Specific Companies (Before They Publish Job Openings)-This Is the Hidden Job Market!

This is crucial. If you don’t target specific companies that are a good fit with your background and value proposition, you will be distracted and will indiscriminately chase positions you hear about or find online. Like a pinball, you’ll get knocked around.

Use a “CIO” approach to job search. CIO typically stands for Chief Information Officer or Chief Innovation Officer. In this case, you will innovate by targeting not just job openings, but Companies, Influencers, and Opportunities.

Depending on the size of your industry, consider starting with a list of 25 to 50 companies; if there are few players in your industry, three to five companies might be plenty. Of course, it’s helpful if you know that the companies are hiring, but it’s not essential. Most hiring managers are always looking for great talent and often find a place for them even if there isn’t an immediate opening.

Tip: To get recommendations of companies to include pose a question on Twitter, such as this:

“Considering new career oppty; what tech companies would you recommend in Boston area?”

You can also search for companies that are using Twitter and follow them.

5. Develop “ROI Relationships” with Hiring Managers and Influencers, Both Online and in Person (aka Networking!)

ROI relationships mean you provide a return-on-investment, or value, to the people you meet (even if they can’t immediately help you). Craft a strong social media campaign to convey this value, and leverage your online activities to support face-to-face encounters.

If you’re not talking to or meeting with hiring managers, people who have influence with hiring managers, or other people who can give you insider information about your target companies - en vivo, several times a week or preferably daily - you’re not conducting an effective campaign. These interactions build trust and credibility with your network.

Tip: Follow hiring managers, company employees, and other influencers on Twitter. Engage in conversations with these people. Help them, without expecting anything in return. It will eventually come back to you. For a beautiful story of how this worked for one job seeker, see www.jbordeaux.com/a-year-ago.

6. Research T.O.P. Issues

T.O.P. is a helpful model for structuring your research on each of your target companies:

What projects are either on the table now or slated for the future; how can you contribute to them? What problems are standing in the way of success; how can you be part of the solution? And finally, who are the players–to whom would you report; who influences the hiring manager’s decision; who would your coworkers be; who are your customers/end-users and what’s important to them?

Tip: You can pose many of your questions on Twitter and other social media sites to expand your research. Type the phrase “I need help with É” in Twitter’s search box to find people who might need your skills.

7. Gain an Advantage with Endorsements

Endorsements are recommendations from people, or influencers, whom a hiring manager likes, respects, and trusts. Influencers might be bosses or supervisors of the hiring manager, coworkers, subordinates, advisors, customers, clients, vendors, strategic partners, or industry thought leaders. They might even be the hiring manager’s next-door neighbors or friends from the gym.

Tip: Your network tacitly recommends you when it retweets your thought leadership. They will be more likely to do so if you’ve also retweeted and recommended them.

8. Cover Your Bases by Applying to Published Jobs

In step 4, we urged you to target companies instead of job openings, since the competition is fierce and odds are against you online. Nonetheless, you should apply online-just don’t waste hours each day doing so.

First, post your resume to your target companies’ Web sites. Then search Indeed.com or SimplyHired.com, which aggregate jobs from all job boards, or LinkUp.com, which searches the job postings on more than 20,000 company Web sites. In addition, choose a couple of niche sites and a regional job board from the AIRS Job Board & Recruiting Technology Directory (available free at here). Check postings at CraigsList.org as well, since the aggregators don’t pick up jobs from this site.

Tip: Check out TwitterJobSearch.com and TweetMyJobs.com, which have job postings and enable you to communicate with recruiters.

9. Embrace Job Search as Marketing: Use Radar-Screen Activities to Link Up, Pop Up, and Follow Up

Job search is marketing, with you as the product and the employer as the consumer. Link up regularly with your key influencers through phone calls, e-mails, and face-to-face meetings (shoot for daily meetings with your various contacts). Pop up unexpectedly on Twitter and other social media sites. Out-of-site means out-of-mind in the online world. And, follow up relentlessly on commitments you’ve made.

Tip: Tweet during the hours when your target company networking contacts are most likely to be on Twitter. Tweet O’Clock (tweetoclock.com/), tells you the best time of day to tweet to improve your chances of specific Twitter users (for example, potential employers or networking contacts) seeing your tweets.

10. Interview as an S.O.S. Consultant

The Morse Code signal “SOS” in this case means Solve Or Support.

Walk into interviews with your consultant hat on, ready to learn about how you can help solve the employer’s problems or be of support in the process. Consultants ask a lot of questions before providing solutions. Make inquiries, such as “What are the key deliverables you need accomplished in this position in the next 30, 60, and 90 days?”Ó and “What strategies have you used thus far?”

After gathering key information, offer examples of how you’ve solved similar problems and how you might approach the solution in the role. The more the employer can envision you in the role, the better.

Tip: Use a tool such as Monitter.com to gather intelligence before your interview.

As you review these 10 “rules,” rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 is highest) on how well you are implementing each rule in your job search. Higher scores will mean greater action and traction in your search!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 11:30 am and is filed under Branding, Job Search, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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