Emma on finding a job using social media – #09writeoff

June 11th, 2009 • 2009 Write-off, Emma's Posts - #09writeoff

Okay, so apparently Emma has brought her game face to this challenge, as demonstrated by today’s post on her attempt to find a job using social media. Her efforts have been less successful than she expected. From the post:

However, in order for people to be willing to help you, they have to know more than just your online persona. You have to become a real person to them. Which means going out and getting involved in your community. Head to TweetUps. Organize an event or Camp or something. Do what you can to get your face in front of people and your personality well-known to anyone and everyone who could potentially be in a position to help you in your job search. It’s one thing to be smart online. It’s a completely different thing to be smart in-person. And unless you plan on getting a job working out of your basement, these interpersonal skills are crucial. These people need to “see to believe.” As it has been for decades in the job industry, it’s all about who you know. IRL. Real world contacts are your best weapon in the job search.

What are my thoughts on this? I have a few, given how circumstances changed for me at the beginning of 2009. Firstly, Emma’s last learning (the quoted piece above) is integral. Unlike her, I was able to track down work almost immediately following my departure from the recruitment business. It was different in the fact that I was looking for freelance work rather than full-time employment, but the opportunities that I saw presented themselves primarily because I took the time to meet these people that I had previously only known online, and because of the time I spent trying to establish credibility in the community. I’d like to think that was a success, but who knows.

As far as resume placement on Workopolis/Monster goes, Workopolis sees a higher recruitment presence due to the fact that signing up for hiring accounts is free (or at least cheaper than Monster), but we tried to avoid Workopolis at our old company in favour of people we already knew – just some food for thought.

Regardless, it’s a great post, and offers some pretty good hands-on insight into what trying to do a job search via social media can be like. If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to share them either here or on Emma’s site.

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