Taking Advantage of Social Networking to Land Your Perfect Job
There’s this guy out there who likes to make you think that maybe you know him. He sends out invitations to join his network via LinkedIn.com, which is really supposed to be only for people who know each other. But, nevertheless, you may get an email from him with a personal invitation. “Hmmm,” you think. “The name doesn’t ring a bell. But, we’re all getting older; memory’s not what it used to be, meeting more and more people. Maybe we met at a conference. I’ll just click on the invitation link, and maybe I’ll remember him after I read further.”
Now he’s got you. Very quickly, in a box that’s supposed to be reserved for a personal message between two friends, he launches into an obvious cut-and-paste description of his business, his services, and what he can do for you. And to make it worse, the services he offers have nothing to do with anything you could ever possibly want in this lifetime. Not interested? No biggie, he says, magnanimously (how big of him). “Just archive me,” he graciously suggests. But that won’t do you any good. By clicking Archive you’re just leaving your door open so that he can walk right through it at a later date.
You haven’t even officially let him into your personal sphere of influence, and he still managed to slime you with a pitch. This is not the way to use social networking. Play nice, follow community rules, and social networking can open up surprising opportunities for you. You just need to know how to work the system to your best advantage and to stand out from the crowds of many milling networkers all wanting to keep each other up-to-date on their doings, which can be as trivial as adventures in plate painting and new puppy antics. Still, it’s also a great way to get a job that’s perfect for you.
Online social networking is a fantastic way to circulate the word about yourself, your abilities, and your availability, says Patrice-Anne Rutledge, author of The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking. “This is Job Search 2.0,” she says, “and it is a much more robust way to build your career than just relying on the more traditional ways of printing out your resumés and networking.”
By using the tools and techniques available to you on these sites, she says, you have much more control over your job-search activities, even if part of your strategy is to be a so-called passive seeker, letting recruiters come to you. And they will, if you play your cards right. Recruiters know from firsthand experience that finding the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack is much faster and more efficient if they search online than if they tackle the stack of unsolicited resumés that come to them via snail mail. Additionally, they know that anyone who is savvy enough to build a spot-on online presence is current with the cutting-edge career-building technologies. And that tells them that at least you’ve been paying attention over the past five years or so.
Understand the difference among the major social networking sites and which ones are most conducive to job searching. LinkedIn.com is best known for people who want to keep their best business foot forward. Rutledge says that more than 100,000 recruiters also have their own profiles posted on LinkedIn. So that’s one big, active marketplace filled with people who want to do business. Although it positions itself as a European market leader, Xing.com has a decidedly global favor in that it brags about having 6.5 million business professionals all over the world, with posted networking events from Brussels to Sydney to Dubai to Beijing to Athens to Berlin, and so on. There are many other sites, and you don’t have to restrict yourself to just one. Just bear in mind that your presence on certain sites, like these two, will position yourself as someone who takes his or her career extremely seriously.
Create your online profile with recruiters in mind. Let’s start with the easy part first: your photo. Make it a respectable business photo that’s relatively current. And make it a picture of you. (I confess that on one of the sites I’m active on, my photo—or avatar—is of my three cats, which I hear, is one of those indications that I might be on my way to being a crazy lady. But I’m not looking for a job; you are.) No cats, no dogs, no baby pictures. There’s one picture I have personally seen of a guy strategically positioned directly behind a gigantic, shall we say, appendage, that’s at least 6 feet long. That is just not a good idea—even if he’s not looking for a job, he might be looking for a girlfriend. Oh. Maybe he is.
As for the rest of your profile, think of it as an electronic document with tons of buttons on it. Each button is an opportunity for recruiters to find you. And so each button should be a keyword that is directly pertinent to how marvelous you are as a professional. Your education, your certifications, the companies you’ve worked for, the projects you’ve completed, the products that you use on the job. Where you live. Where you want to live. Think of everything that is true about you that would make a recruiter’s eyes light up. And then think of how you can make your profile go “Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!” with all those lit buttons. And now you have the makings of a profile that is a compelling recruiter magnet. Use those keywords to your advantage.
Scour these sites’ online job marketplaces. You’re also an active job seeker. And these sites are only going to get better and better as years move along and recruiters increasingly use them. LinkedIn has made its marketplace so much better to use than the traditional online lists of job postings in that it also indicates for you whether you have a person in your network who might know someone personally in the company that’s posting the job. This way you don’t have to join the throng of resumé pitchers who are applying for those jobs. You can use your network exactly the way you should, which is to see whether you can snag yourself a personal introduction to someone on the inside who will make the hiring decision.
Work the system; don’t try to beat it. Good social networking citizens know that their communities will stay civilized only if everyone minds their manners. If you try to sleaze your way into a harmonious group of openly sharing people, you’ll be as welcome (not to mention as obvious) as a lounge lizard at an anniversary party. I know that wouldn’t be you. But I bet you can think of a friend or two you can give this advice to.
Have fun on vacation but know your limits. Remember that what goes on the Web stays on the Web. So leave your digital camera in your room if you already know in advance that, with just one margarita, you are likely to lift—or drop—an article of clothing that back home normally remains held properly in place. Ditto the photos of your tattoos. Don’t count on the hope that your buttoned-up LinkedIn presence will be all that recruiters see. They’ll check out Facebook and MySpace, as well, which seem to be where the really gross pictures (like the previously mentioned one) end up.
Get involved in as many social networking groups as you have time for. Spend some time searching the thousands of special-interest groups that these sites play host to: your high school alums, for starters, or people who like to scuba dive on sunken school buses in flooded Midwest quarries, maybe, fans of Mr. Green Jeans, fans of Mr. Moose, or people who think that Bunny Rabbit had a criminal mind. You’ll be amazed at who’s out there and who welcomes people just like them to chat and compare notes. It’s actually scary, when you think about it. This world has got to get back to work. (Just make sure that whatever groups you get caught up in will lead you to the kinds of jobs you want. These things can take up a lot of time and attention. And it won’t look so good if recruiters Google your name—they will—and Google brings up a predominance of hits of you weighing in on the Bunny Rabbit controversy. Recruiters aren’t especially attracted to candidates with a lot of demonstrable time on their hands.)
Social networking is evolving fast, and that’s very good news because it means the world has become an even better place to find work that’s good enough for you.
The best thing you can do:
If you’re new to social networking, set aside a half day, make yourself very comfortable in front of the computer (you can even wear your pajamas for this project), and just explore the world of social networking sites.
The worst thing you can do:
Do things online that you wouldn’t do in front of a boss in person.
The first thing you should do:
Enjoy the exploration.