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How to lose a job on Twitter

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

While I’m on my perch about the benefits of Twitter, you do need to be smart about how you use it.

If you muck up, you can muck up publicly, damage your online brand and ping people off when you use it. I’ve since un-followed a person because of what I’m about to describe and I suspect many other people will as well. Here’s what happened.

I check my @box on Twitter a few times a day to see who’s been trying to speak with me. (An @box is like your email inbox) A few weeks ago I received the message below. For those of you who don’t use Twitter, “@” is where people leave you a message. It appears on their profile, and you can respond by doing the same on your profile. This is the public conversation you may want to have on Twitter.

This is the offending tweet.

“@interviewIQ Scientist needs job now, find my profile on LinkedIn.”

I thought that it was interesting that she sent me this, so I checked her profile. She had dozens of people she was spamming like this. Her first page of tweets had the same message to 10 random people, not many of them recruiters.

The reason she did this was to get people like me to look at her profile, and not just rely on her being at the top of my rapidly descending list of tweets. But it is plain silly on so many levels. Firstly she looks desperate which is a job searching no no. Secondly she shows that she hadn’t taken the time to work out what I did or what any other person did. She was just spamming everyone. Thirdly she’s showing both poor communication skills and poor networking skills.

I know this sounds harsh, and it makes me wonder if I’ve annoyed people in the same way. While Twitter seems easy to use, it does take a while for people to understand what Twitter is really about when you first start out. But I do think good networking rules apply, if you want to make the most out of it.

Online relationships are fragile. You are summed up pretty quickly on Twitter. Be warned.

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How to find a job on Twitter, or get started at least….

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

I love Twitter and not because I’m an exhibitionist with a short attention span. I love Twitter because it’s an amazing social search engine. I follow people in HR, employers, recruitment consultants, my clients, people who follow me, and lots of other people who just keep me amused. People are always tweeting interesting information, with links back to blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. They tell me and the rest of the universe what they like, who they talk to and what they’re up to. Well, the bits they’d like me to know at least. So I use Twitter a lot for ideas and contacts. But there are lots of other uses for Twitter as well, including finding a job on it.

If you are struggling to find a job, or even just randomly looking, you’d be mad if you overlook Twitter, even if you can’t stand the thought of exposing yourself on social media. You don’t actually have to expose yourself, to get interesting information out of it, or even a job. You can just use it as a research tool. Here are a few basic tips and things to think about to get you started.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 1

Sign on.

You can use your own name if you are open about your job search and happy for people to know. If not use something else.

If you want to use your own name but it’s taken, you could also use a name that represents what you do, your industry or what you’d like to do.

If you don’t want people to know that you are looking for a job, use another name, and set up and use an email address that doesn’t have your name in it.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 2

Fill in your professional bio. You are only given 160 characters so you’ll need to be precise. Have a look at what I’ve done with mine. I use a mixture of the professional and the personal. You don’t need to write your bio this way, but for me it’s a nice point of connection for anyone who chooses to talk to me.

Bio: Careers journalist, job search and interview coach, resume writer, author, random tweeter and SEO online profile tweaker. Prefers salt to chlorine on hot days.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 3

Link your URL back to your LinkedIn profile, website or blog if you have one. Make it easy for people to find out more about the information you’d like to present publicly about yourself.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 4

Learn how it works. Unlike LinkedIn, linking up on Twitter is not so personal. You can choose to follow whomever you like. Sometimes people follow you back. Sometimes they don’t. Don’t take it personally they don’t. It’s easy to be swamped by too many people.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 5

Don’t panic.

With “@”, “#”, “RT” and “FF” just to name a few, a Twitter conversation can seem like a jargon convention for the hyperactive, where you’re left on the sidelines. Here are a few quick translations.

– @ is a message you can post on your profile in acknowledgement to someone else, or when you are having a public conversation.

– # helps tweeters organise their tweets so other people can find them. Sometimes groups of people use this to have a conversation. I plan to join #blogchat at some time, for tips on blogging.

– “RT” allows you to tweet out someone else’s tweet, that you may think is useful

– “FF” is a random twitter code – Follow Friday. It’s a way of acknowledging people who you like, or who have helped you.

There are hundreds more than what I have just mentioned. That’s the thing with Twitter, cracking the code can get you hooked into it.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 5

What to tweet?

If you want people to follow you as well, you’ll need to say something. Otherwise you’ll look like a spammer. If you tweet about work, be careful though about whether your employer has any privacy policies. Some are explicit about who can be public spokes people for companies and Twitter can be in the public domain. Even if your employer doesn’t have privacy policies, you saying something about your work may simply not be acceptable. Plus it could be sackable.

There are also dumb things people have done on Twitter, to get them dismissed.

Have a read of this post by resume bear. It includes things such as:

Bragging about fooling your boss into thinking you worked late the night before.

Bragging about using twitter in work time when it’s not allowed.

Talking about when they will resign

I’ll be adding on to this list on this blog as time goes on.

If you post links you can use URL shortening services like bit.ly

When you tweet, do remember that Twitter is public and becomes part of the public record. Recruiters look at what in the public domain about you. Digital screening is becoming more and more popular. So a good rule of thumb is to remember everything on the internet can be archived. At some point it may come back to bite you.

Top Twitter Job Hunting Tip # 6

You don’t have to use Twitter publicly to use it to job search. You can set up a profile, protect your tweets, or not even tweet, and follow anyone you like for information.

I’ve found Twitter works for me when I engage in a conversation with another tweeter, but anything that I want to discuss privately, that I think could be confidential for the other person or myself, I say offline. It’s a good rule of thumb.

Who should you follow on Twitter to help you get a job?

You’ll be surprised who you find here. Many job boards, recruitment consultants, major employers and HR managers are on Twitter. You may sign up to a job board and receive an email once a day or once a week, however job boards will often blast out jobs on Twitter as they have them listed. This means you get first jump on jobs before other people do.

Use Twitter to network to find a job

Like LinkedIn you can follow colleagues, friends and people in your broader network. It’s a way of keeping what they’re up to in the present for you. Again remember if you follow them, they can click on your profile and see your tweets. So do be mindful of what you are sharing. If you want to make contact, Twitter makes it easy to pick up a thread of a conversation and have a point in common.

I’ve also known people who’ve needed staff really quickly to tweet out the job to their network. Those jobs have never landed on a job board.

The bottom line with Twitter is that it’s only one job searching tool of many. More and more recruiters and employers are using these to track you down, or check you out, so it’s worthwhile at least understanding these, even if you choose not to use them.

There are more advanced Twitter tools job search tools that you can use. However if you’re like most people I know, you’ve barely thought about LinkedIn, let alone Twitter at this stage. So I’ll introduce these gently 🙂

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Managing your online brand – Job hunting 2.0 means Chef Shane is moving fast

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Job hunting 2.0 – LinkedIn Profiles, Twitter tweets and a blog – This guest post is brought to you by Shane Brierly aka chef-a-go-go

A hectic year of working hard and focusing on being an effective and valued member of an organisation hasn’t been the way for me to get recognition and further job opportunities, unfortunately.

Building my worth as a focused an manager and employee has meant that I have been too busy to meet peers and network. Neglecting my blog posts and cutting back on my social life has equated to me becoming an invisible man. That’s not a good thing when you want to find your next role.

I’ll give you some context. I was working in a small tropical location which was generally paradise, but without the vast communities that exist in cities and their associated networking opportunities. Social media has been a way of letting people know where I am, what I have been doing and more importantly, why I have been doing it.

Putting myself back on the job market, I needed to do a lot of ‘catch up.’ Step one was to update the resume. I found Google to be an amazing tool. Everything you need to know is on it “somewhere”. There’s a lot of clutter and opinion around a lot of self promotion and conflicting advice. The hard part is not finding information, but filtering it and taking the first step forward.

One thing I learned was that other peoples’ blogs ended up being more informative, engaging and inspiring than ‘websites’. Blogs are a real David and Goliath story. When did that happen? When did blogs suddenly become the bastions of scared knowledge on almost any topic? The specialisation is staggering – as is the interaction and scope of content. That’s how I met Karalyn.

Unlike corporate websites, blogs tend to have an author – a human – a PERSON behind them. I have almost had a brain overload. In fact I have about 30 tabs queued in my browser now as we speak. Like reading a book, only faster and easier to navigate and find what you want.

On average, I’d say it takes around 3 months to find and commit to a suitable new career move. So with time at hand I began reconnecting with, friends, colleagues, new contacts, industry peers, employers etc. via social media and updating my online profiles. Social media is not so scary, except for the hype and drama around it. It’s really nothing more than an on-line telephone, water cooler, pub or coffee shop – a way to connect, meet and share info, views etc.

Like the difference between the pub, water-cooler and phone – each has their own type of interaction or conversation. I just began using the tools in a more organised way.

I already had the different social media presence happening – but LinkedIn – was the big surprise. It suddenly grew up this year. A few years back it was a fairly static collection of names, resumes and ‘connect’ requests. Now it is more like a yellow pages of everyone that you can or will ever work for.

Updating my LinkedIn profile effectively is getting me about 7-10 hits a day – without me having to run around. It has my credentials, career focus and endorsements on-line to refer people too and also allows me to meet others in my field. Another bonus is the ability to ‘reference check’ any prospective agents or employers to see if they are the type of people I would get on well with or want to work for.

This is now such an active community, that I would that suggest anyone who has a resume and is not on LinkedIn needs to address it today.

I have spent a page talking which could be broken down into “if it is not your area of expertise, than ask a professional” When doing your CV – you always over-think it. It isn’t about you – it is about what you bring to the table for the employer. A professional can give you a strategy, direction and advice on how best to get your CV noticed and read, land an interview and how to handle it. And that is what gets you on the short-list and into a job.

In my industry, chefs make a point to be different, to stand out, be unique, creative, inspired and to have an angle. It is ironic that most of us reply to job ads along with a hundred other applicants, using chronological CV’s with a statement and objective. That demonstrates exactly the opposite.

Importantly – when you have got the job – keep connecting, keep sharing, and stay in touch. You may never have to look for jobs again. LinkedIn and social networking will deliver opportunities and people that you identify with and want to work with – Â to your ‘bookmarks’, ‘favourites’ mobile phone or inbox.

I have two interviews next week – one connected on LinkedIn through a social media contact, and the other from an agent who I have known for years. After he referred me to the hotel group, my new look resume got me the call back out of a stack of applicants.

As Apple said back in 1997 when they hopped back in the saddle “Think Different”

Now I am actually getting more interest and response from the connections I have made and from LinkedIn, Twitter and social media – than I am from writing to job advertisements.

It is never too late – but it is harder to rebuild a network every few years than it is to consistently grow and maintain one.

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More than a profile! Eight things LinkedIn can tell you about the professionalism of your recruitment consultant

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

A LinkedIn profile is powerful, but LinkedIn itself can tell you a whole lot more than you think….

I loved this recent piece I read from Punk Rock HR’s Laurie Ruettimann on questions to ask a recruitment consultant. She includes things such as asking for a bio, asking the consultant to talk about their networking strategies, their relationships with HR professionals plus asking the consultant to give you an overview of the industry and their last couple of placements.

These are great questions. Here’s something else you can do.

I also think that just as a recruitment consultant is back-grounding your profile on LinkedIn, you can do your own due diligence using LinkedIn on the person who represents you. I say this because two of my clients recently have had very disappointing experiences with consultants. Have a read of these scenarios.

Scenario 1

One of my clients was going for a major interview. He was a bundle of nerves, as, and I know this sounds like a cliché, this was his dream job. The consultant said she would give him a practice run on his interview skills the morning before the interview. He called and called and called, only to be told that the consultant was in a meeting and not available. That made a nerve-wracking situation even more difficult for my client.

Scenario 2

Another of my clients saw an advertised job and telephoned a consultant. The consultant said she sounded perfect for the job and would forward on her resume to the employer. My client left a couple of messages but did not hear back. She then called the consultant a week later, only to be told that the consultant had left. Her new consultant said she would chase the role up with the employer. One week later my client still had not heard anything. So my client rang the employer directly, who told her he had not received her resume, nor had he engaged any agency to advertise the role. Ouch!

If you’re reading this post as a job seeker, I know in many cases you will chase the role despite the recruitment consultant. But if you’re worried about who is representing you, or are looking for a good consultant to contact, here’s what LinkedIn may tell you, about the professionalism of your consultant. This is beyond what what is actually written on the consultant’s profile.

1) Does the recruitment consultant actually have a profile on LinkedIn? In most cases you’d want them to have one. It shows that they want visibility in the market place and to make themselves accessible. Plus it shows that they understand the value of networking.

2) LinkedIn profile will not only tell you where the consultant has worked, but how long they have spent at each company. Just as many short term stints don’t look that great on your resume, neither does it for a recruitment consultant. It’s says something about the person, something about the organization, or something about both.

3) A LinkedIn profile can tell you the depth of a consultant’s industry expertise. That way you can see if they know what they are talking about.

4) Look to see who recommends the recruitment consultant on LinkedIn. Asking for a recommendation is actually a big deal. It should be a big deal as it is a public endorsement. So if several of the consultant’s clients have said complimentary things about them, it is a good sign that they are good at building lasting relationships.

5) Does the consultant have a string of other colleagues from the same company recommend them on LinkedIn? I don’t have an issue with one or two. However too many commendations for the consultant from people who look like current colleagues in the same company, makes it look like the person does not get the point of LinkedIn. If someone understands what to put on LinkedIn, then they probably understand networking, (whether they do it well is a whole other story).

6) How many people are in the consultant’s network on LinkedIn, and who are they? If there is a solid sprinkling of HR Managers, Directors, senior execs, managers and candidates, then that’s a sign that people are happy to hook up with the consultant. Again that’s an indication of the service they may provide.

7) How does the consultant network, and which groups do they belong to? Do they belong to any industry groups? Have they created groups of their own? You can join the group and look to see how the consultant communicates with others.

8) Lastly, and I’m annoyed with myself for not thinking of this first, look to see how well the consultant writes their profile. What words do they use? Perhaps they may be describing you in the same way. You want to be comfortable with that.

This is how you’re being checked out as a candidate. It goes beyond just what you’ve written on your profile. This is how I expect people to look at my profile. This is why I’m not sure I made the right decision (two years ago) to become an open networker, but more on that later.

Read Laurie’s full piece here.

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