While I’ve had the fortune to not have had to look for many jobs in my years of being an adult, I’ve always heard it was about who you know; in other words, it’s networking. This notion always scared me because I thought I’d have to know a lot of people, and I thought I’d have to know them pretty well for them to be interested in helping me find a job. Thankfully I live in a time where networking floats in the air I breathe, in the digital bits of the tweets and status updates of social networks. Now that I’m embarking on a new adventure, I sat down at my computer last night and wound up spending two hours “networking.”
It began with this article: HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter, from Mashable.com. At the end of the post, the article lists multiple twitter accounts to follow if you need to find a job. I clicked the ones of interest to me, and as I was about to start clicking “follow,” I thought…Wait a minute… If this new account decides to follow me back, or if any other traffic should arrive as a result of starting to follow these accounts, do I really want my lame Twitter page to be their first impression?
So I googled “Twitter background templates” and found this free downloadable Twitter background PSD file from @chadengle of fuelyourcreativity.com. I edited it and wound up with the background currently seen on my twitter page. It’s still fairly simple, but it’s direct and looks better than before.
Finally, I felt confident to start following new accounts (listed here for your amusement). Then things got really fun. I’d begun using Hootsuite online recently at my current job and knew it would be a useful tool for this new endeavor. I didn’t realize how powerful the tool they’ve created is until I saw how it could help me in a job search. I created a list on which I could place only twitter accounts related to my job search in Dallas and Fort Worth. I created a column that only tracks the hashtag #tweetmyjobs. I created other columns that deliver real-time results for “Dallas jobs” and “Forth Worth jobs.” In perusing the results, I found @writerjobsdal, an account aimed directly at the type of job I’m looking for. I started to find interesting jobs almost immediately, but my eyelids could bear their burden no longer. I left the search until today, but knowing that I’d set in place useful tools for my search allowed me to sleep soundly.
Feel free to make recommendations of Twitter accounts, or share your own story if and how using online tools helped you get a job. Or, you know, offer me a job in DFW.
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