Speed Up Your Dream Job Search on Social Media!

“What if I never find my dream job?”

A few years ago, moaning about your current situation and how difficult it was to find any job was understandable. There was high unemployment, the country was hit by recession and jobs were hard to come by. You had to be resourceful! If you didn’t bother buying the local paper or visiting the Job Centre though, you had no chance. Those were the main ways to find out about new opportunities.

Fast forward to 2014 and there are so many more ways (much easier, free and at our fingertips) to find meaningful work. Yes, I\’m talking about the dear old internet (25 years old now – where did those years go?) Most of us are able to use the net these days for some part of our lives – shopping, gaming, emailing, facebooking! Yet, many of us are missing a huge trick when it comes to using it to find our dream jobs!

Talking to a number of people recently of all ages and backgrounds has been a real eye-opener. I\’ve met 50-year-olds who only use Facebook, 19-year-olds who only tweet and 30-somethings who are only on Linkedin. Dig a bit deeper and it becomes apparent that many are quite passive, even on their preferred medium. They scroll through, reading other people’s posts, smiling to themselves or showing someone else in the room “Here, have a look at this!” Ask them if they ever comment or “Like” the posts though and the answer is invariably “Oh no! I just read them.” That’s why we all have numerous Facebook “friends” that never show up on our news feeds.

Anyway, I digress, my point is that all of these networks are a vital resource, just waiting to be tapped. Using only one is not the way to get ahead of the game.

Quote: “Twitter is just for stalking celebrities!”   WRONG!

Quote: “Facebook is too bitchy!”   WRONG!

Quote:  “There’s nobody on Google+”  WRONG!

Quote: “I’m too young / inexperienced for LinkedIn!”   WRONG AGAIN!!

Your social networks reflect you and your friends and acquaintances. You choose who to \”friend\”, who to \”follow\” and who to \”connect with.\” Used correctly, they should be delivering a tailored stream of wise words, inspiration, humour and OPPORTUNITIES to you.  If there’s an activity you don’t want to see, it’s very easy to delete it or stop it from coming through.

So, in our search for Your Dream Job, let’s adopt an ’employer mindset’ for a moment. Imagine that you are the employer and you have a vacancy to fill. How do you feel? Who would you like to apply? Where can you find those kinds of people?

You could: Pay for an advert in the local paper. Or pay a recruitment agency to find you, someone? Or…maybe there’s another way?

You could: Post on twitter where all the people who follow your firm (i.e. are interested in your business) will have the chance to see it! You could mention it on your Facebook page, where all your “Likers” will see it. And, you could search LinkedIn for prospective candidates.

Which options appeal to you the most? The free ones? Thought so! And why not? The economy is tough. It makes sense, especially as the free ones are also the places where your fans and potential job seekers are hanging out!

So, at the risk of now stating the obvious:

If You want to be among the first to know when #YourDreamJob is advertised, You need to be active on all the social media sites that your dream employers are using and following them!

Otherwise, you may never know that your dream job was available, let alone be able to apply for it.

For further insight on this subject, look out for the next “Speed Up Your Dream Job Search Using Social Media” workshop.

Jonathan Pollinger, of Intranet Future, is a social media expert and we have joined forces to create this event. I am really excited about it and can’t wait to help you speed up you dream job search!! We have lots more tips to share, it will be interactive and, this time, it’s a smallish group so we’ll be on hand to chat to you personally too. 

I do hope you can make it!

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