Get Me Off The Dole on Twitter
May 14th, 2009
It seems that every man and his dog are on Twitter these days so I thought I would see what all the fuss is about. At first glance, it looks like a bunch of people with nothing better to do than send silly text messages to one another. You would think that people would have better things to do. If you read some of these messages you’d think everyone’s gone nuts – I certainly did (I still think many of them have anyway).
It seems that some of the largest companies, celebrities and politicians also use this medium. In fact Twitter has grown so much that it is even more popular than CNN!.
After doing some real digging I found that you can be amongst the first to hear the latest news on practically anything. In fact some of the top news agencies also use Twitter to get tip-offs for the latest gossip.
Here’s a little tip. Go to Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) and type in the following into the search box:
jobs uk create OR new
When you see the search results, select the news item by clicking on the web address (URL) which begins with ‘http’. So what good is this? Monitor these results frequently to do some prospective job hunting. Remember about the “Hidden Job Market”? Well this is one avenue. These jobs won’t necessarily be advertised yet. Take the initiative and write to the Human Resources Manager.
Like me, I’m sure this will change your perception of Twitter. It is one seriously useful tool.”
2 Responses to “Get Me Off The Dole on Twitter”
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Hi Brian,
Think it’s great you’re spreading the word about twitter as a jobhunt tool, couldn’t agree more, but using it simply to hunt out job ads through breaking news is just the beginning.
Twitter, when you get into it properly, is all about conversation and being able to make direct contact with people who share your interests/profession etc, who interest and engage you and in many cases who you ordinarily wouldn’t be able to make such immediate contact with.
Putting this in the jobhunt context – I’m a career changer moving from journalism to PR, and in the last few months have been able to talk to and get advice directly from MD’s of some of the top North West PR agencies. I’ve also been tipped off about vacancies ahead of the crowd and sourced a number of work placements. In the tough climate we’re in now it’s been the most useful tool for me.
You might be interested to read the my recent blog post about job searches on twitter and ‘tweeting for jobs’ bit.ly/19BS8i and let me know your thoughts.
Keep tweeting!
Hi Nikki,
Many thanks for your comments. Yes, using Twitter for networking is a powerful way to get in touch with like-minded people who you wouldn’t normally come into contact with.
I read your blog post with great interest.