On October 28, 2010 I left my last job and had a number of interviews lined up by November 4, 2010. A month later, during a 7 day period, I had 6 serious inquiries into my availability with the result of 2 second interviews and 1 job offer. In a few weeks I will most likely return to Iraq with a significant pay increase. How did I do it? I used online social networking.
Online social networking will not get you a job alone. You still must have the right expertise, a great resume and above average interview skills. However, it will make meeting the right person who knows of an open position that much easier.
As I mentioned in my last post, it is very difficult to stand out from the crowd in a Monster, Dice, Corporate, or Recruiting firm’s database.
Do update your resume on your favorite job board but have realistic expectations. The days of the old, post resume in volume and the offers will come, technique are over. The best way to land a job is to have somebody already working there recommends you. To accomplish this you really need to put your laptop and Smartphone to work.
Update Your Social Media Profiles
When I arrived in Dubai on October 29, 2010 I had a 24 hour layover. After taking a quick nap, I cracked open my laptop and I logged onto LinkedIn to update my location. I changed my location back to where I am from in Texas and changed my industry from Defense & Aerospace on LinkedIn to Logistics and Supply Chain. This would allow me to indicate to Defense Logistics firms in the Killeen/ Temple and Austin areas I was available for an interview. This resulted in several stateside recruiters contacting me about positions I would not have otherwise learned about. I also clicked on recommended jobs and sent my profile to those firms as well.
I also posted on my Facebook page that I was returning to the US so that all my friends and family would know I was in the market. Besides my contracting buddies alerting me to overseas positions, my brother- in- law told me about Warehouse Manager position in Dallas,TX while people from my father’s network reached out to me with potential consulting gigs.
I made sure to connect my Twitter account to both my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. I did this in order to share articles, job opportunities and random job related thoughts across all three platforms and save time.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Joining Non-Work Related Online Groups
Join groups that you are interested in socially such as running, fantasy football, sorority, chess, shooting whatever it is. Eventually someone will open up about work and they may be in a similar field or know someone who is.
This worked great for me. I follow a group of people related to technology startups. Occasionally I chime in with my two cents through a tweet or a comment on a blog. I had this gentleman hit me back last week to discuss a job opportunity which led to a discussion about my site Log Dog Jobs (soon to be Hello I’m Logistics) and a lead to a potential investor.
I would never have run into this person during the course of my normal life.
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