If you are a job hunter and you are not using twitter, perhaps you want to think again. Why? Check out this article, Top 5 Twitter Apps for Recruiters. If you’re one of those people who still thinks twitter is stupid, then skip this post. If your mind is open, keep reading.
If recruiters need automated tools to help them post their jobs to twitter… then it must be worth checking out.
Let’s run through a few of the reasons WHY recruiters use twitter:
It’s free
It’s easy
It has broad reach
It separates out the ‘dinosaurs’ from the people who get it
I hear this from some job seekers.. ‘but I have all this experience… they should want to hire me for that, not for whether it tweet or not.”
This is true… you do have excellent experience… but so do lots of other people. And those people have updated their skills, are engaged with the world and want to be connected and learn new things. Argue with me all you want. It doesn’t change the facts.
My friend Charlene Kingston has an fantastic eBook to help you get started. Twitter for Beginners. She also has awesome tools, eBooks and online sessions for small business people. Check it out. She rocks.
At work, the war between the kids (20 somethings) and the old people (50 somethings) is over. The kids have won.
For those of you who think this isn’t true, let’s consider the facts.
– The workplace is officially BYOD – Bring Your Own Device… in a short 5 years the IT department has gone from “we don’t support that” to “we’ll help you get your job done on whatever device you need.”
– Bye bye Blackberry– 5 years ago, in “Corporate America” — the Blackberry was the go-to device. Their market share has fallen from 41% to 10%. A person no longer needs a big corporation’s network and device to be mobile & productive.
– Letting technology do what it does best is a win/win. When we can use technology to remove distance barriers between people…e.g. online learning, online petitions, Facebook and collaborative tools like Google docs, dropbox and flickr– we substantially improve productivity and outcomes.
However, we need to keep pushing on the very important HUMAN side of the equation. The things machines can’t do (and likely never will) are the keys to making this new digital, “cyberspacy” world work for all of us.
These include:
- Empathy, Passion, Listening, Respect, Courage.
Listen to Marc Presnsky (who first talked about digital natives and immigrants in 2003) talk about the responsibility of educators in using technology. We can all learn from this.
Have you ever been on the hiring side of a resume? It’s not fun.
You often feel like this guy. Overwhelmed by ‘paper’ and buzzwords that don’t tell you anything.
Before you spend more time and get more opinions about your resume, check out this article, “How Recruiters See Your Resume…” Take a look at the heat map associated with this article.
It tells us that the more structured your resume, the easier it is for those 6 seconds to be productive and get you into the consideration pile vs. the no way pile.
The goal of the resume is to… wait for it… get you an interview! Be sure to think of it that way. It’s not to document your entire work history.
By the way, how’s your Linked In profile? Do you have 300 connections? Do you belong to several groups? Have you uploaded your PowerPoint presentations? Do you answer questions? Make sure you include a live link to your Linked In profile from your resume.
Maybe you’ve heard of a company called Zappos. In 1999, they began selling shoes on the Internet. I remember thinking… no one will buy shoes online. I was wrong! In less than 10 years, Zappos hit $1Billion in sales.
What’s even more amazing about Zappos is their culture. It begins and ends with customer service. I mean real service. Sad that a focus on the customer is so unique.
But the real magic of the organization, according to CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”) is in the hiring. When interviewing at Zappos you might be asked,
“What’s your theme song?” or “How weird are you?”
By asking these questions, Zappos finds out if you’re flexible, creative, funny and interesting. So would you want to work in a place where these were the interview questions? I would.
I’ve often said I’m a little too weird for the normal people but too normal for the weird people. So add this (maybe) to the list of interview questions to prepare. What’s your favorite interview question?
Oh my but the world of job search is changing in so many ways, I feel like my head is going to explode. This article, “How Real Time Web Changes Job Search,”is jammed full of ideas, websites and concepts relating to job search.
If you are in HR or looking for work; you need to read this article. Here are just few of the highlights:
- On Twitter alone “more than a million tweets about job openings go out every month from 6,000+ employers and 7,700+ job channels via TweetMyJOBS.com
- The traditional job board is disappearing and being replaced by ‘direct sourcing’ which is when hiring decision-makers “identify, reach out to, engage, and convert” only the highly desirable candidates. Passive candidates become the new gold. The better your digital footprint, the easier you’ll be to find.
- Job sites are adding “Who do I know”? buttons to their sites so you can see who you know at a company without going to Linked In.
And one of my favorites… Paid Interviews.com. It actually pays candidates when they successfully interview (read: get hired) and has a virtual water cooler feature which is “a place for candidates to talk about their past employment experiences, it’s like Amazon product ratings, but for companies. It’s a place where you can get unbiased answers about employers around the world.”
If you’re a company with a lousy culture… the good old days might be evaporating before your very eyes. Between sites like paidinterviews.com and glassdoor.com and social networking; hiding is going to get tougher. Ahhh, transparency. Welcome.
Last week I was speaking at a big event and had the pleasure of meeting many people. I was, however, unhappily struck by the number of people who don’t realize the negative impression of their fishy handshake.
What do I mean by a ‘fishy’ handshake? Well, when you offer just the fingers of your hand or when you fail to grasp the other person’s hand and shake it with confidence; you run the risk of having people think you are weak. This especially goes for men shaking hands with women. It is disrespectful to barely shake hands with a woman. It makes them think that you don’t think of them as equals.
You’ve probably heard the story about why we shake hands, i.e., to show that we have no weapons in our hands. Aside from the way we dress and eye contact, our handshake is another very important signal of our confidence.
When you shake hands, please, oh please I’m begging you, look the person in the eye and give them a gentle but firm handshake. This isn’t a strength contest but it is a chance to make the other person sit up and take notice of your positive manner. So ladies, put your hand out there and shake firmly. Guys, do the same. it’s so important!
It may be hard to believe but many Human Resource professionals are gearing up their recruiting efforts. While the economy isn’t exactly humming, the job market is heating up and companies are actively looking for ‘bench strength.’ In a 2010 survey titled, Job Seeker Nation, it was reported that we are rapidly becoming a nation of ‘free agents’ who are continuously alert for opportunities. And by the way, this is a good thing. Try this on for size…
I know keeping up our skills is hard and that trying to make sure we’re networking and connecting is a pain. But consider the alternative. “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less,” said General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. He wasn’t referring to the job market but, it does apply.
Each of us needs to be thinking about being a proactive career manager. Are you diligently building your network? Are you getting training? Are you actively discussing key aspects of change in your field? Do you read blogs that are relevant to your industry? Are you out of your comfort zone?
I want to be one of those people that companies are willing to fight to recruit. How about you?
In the only question you need to ask in an interview we talked about asking questions. Now I’m encouraging you to think about how you answer questions and talk with your interviewer. And I do mean talking with them.
In 25 Oddball Interview Questions, the author lists interesting interview questions from companies like Google, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, Facebook and Amazon. These interviewers learned a lot from the responses to these off the wall queries.
You might think, no one is ever going to ask me, “How many traffic lights are in Manhattan?”, but if you get asked an oddball question; will you be prepared with a creative answer? More than ever, organizations need people who can be flexible and think differently about problems.
If you’re hiring manager and had, say, 3 candidates all of whom were equally qualified – how would you figure out which one to hire? You might try asking one of these questions to see how creative and spontaneous the interviewee can be.
So, how would you answer: “How many basketballs can you fit in this room?” Here are a few answers:
Probably the same number of soccer balls
One. You didn’t ask what is the maximum number of basketballs you can fit in the room
Measure the room in basketballs. The room is 16 basketballs (length) by 12 basketballs (width) by 9 basketballs (height). Then it’s just a simple volume multiplication.
My answer would have been, “Why do we want to bring basketballs into this room? Hmmm, what does that tell you about me?
Wow, I knew a lot of things were moving to the mobile space but job hunting? Check out this image of mobile screens from Starbucks. Yes, attention folks; phones are for a lot more than games and email. Before you dismiss this as “not for jobs like the one I’m looking for’”, please check out this article from Mashable.com.
Nielsen Research indicates that nearly half of American adults will have ‘smart phones” by the end of 2011. Mobile payment structures, comparison shopping, geolocation, interest driven profiles, group buying and so much more are evidence that this (r)evolution is coming on strong.
Are you prepared? Do you understand what mobile is going to do to your business? Let me know what you think about mobile.
I regularly talk to groups about social media and there are still a surprising number of people who insist that Twitter is stupid. They know nothing about it, they’ve never used it, but they are certain it’s useless. They are like this dog. Asleep.
As I go through my talk, inevitably the most vocal opponent (the one who kept telling me how insightful they are and how stupid I am) sees the light and suddenly wants my help. Hmmm…
Why are there so many jobs posted on Twitter?
– It’s free, fast, easy, has an incredibly broad reach AND all those people who think social media is stupid won’t be looking there!
Back to the job hunt. Of those 500 job posts per minute, there are, of course, redundant jobs BUT… the question is… how can you use what’s there to help you?
Using Hashtags to Boost Your Job Search is a terrific article on how to use Twitter effectively (Hashtag =# = keywords). Hashtags such as #jobs, #jobadvice, #jobhunt and #jobsearch offer both job openings and general job search advice. If you’re looking for high-level information to help your job search, start here.
Put the hashtag in the twitter search bar and up will pop articles (links) that may help you. Geographic hashtag can narrow your search, #roc = Rochester, NY. Also, there are hundreds of recruiters on twitter, Check out this resource. Follow the smart people on Twitter and you might be surprised how much you’ll learn. Got Twitter job search tips? Please share.
future of work, job search, Life Transitions, personal development, reputation management, skills, social media | Deborah | 
May 2, 2013 9:42 am | 
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