While I don’t guarantee employment for anyone utilizing my services, I assist you with finding legitimate job opportunities, resume tweaking, social networking, cover letters, thank you letters, interview preparation/follow up and salary negotiations. Everything from the first step to the last. I provide my services until you are employed, or for a period of 6 months, whichever comes first.

I also offer all services a la carte, if you are just interested in pieces of the process:

Job Search/Career Consulting Services: One-time fee of $1500
(which includes all a la carte services, unlimited for 6 months)

Resume Re-Write: $150
($100 for each additional resume, should you want multiple versions)

Cover letters/Thank you letters: $25/each

Job Search/Career Consulting: $50/30 mins or $75/hour

Social Media/Networking Tutoring: $75/hour

When just any Career Service won’t do, put me to work for you! I can provide many references and samples from happy job seekers.  For more information, Email me at: robin [at] jobshouts.com

Why do I need Career Coaching?

The last time you interviewed for a job, did you have someone with industry knowledge counseling you on how to prepare, what questions to ask, what red flags to watch out for? How about help writing your cover letter or thank you letter? A professional Career Coach is your advocate; your “upper hand” in the job search. I’ve spent more than 15 years in the staffing industry working with hiring managers within Fortune 500 companies.  My experience affords me firsthand knowledge of what hiring managers are looking for but don’t always put in the job description. Most importantly I have 15 years experience in counseling job seekers, giving them everything they need to get that job!

Why do I need a professional Resume writer?

In my 15 years in the professional staffing industry, I have seen a lot of bad resumes. A lot of so-called resume writing services will happily take your hard earned money and deliver sub-standard resume content. Does your resume read like a job advertisement, stuffed full of the important “keywords” but lacking the right content to get you that call or interview? Does it contain grammatical errors, poor writing or just desperately need updating? Is your resume properly formatted? If it contains bullets, tables and a lot of bolding and italics, then it isn’t.

I can help. I will transform your dull resume into a proper sales pitch of your personality, capabilities and accomplishments.  I know how put the correct keywords, content and formatting into place. Your new resume will clearly demonstrate to the reader that you are great at what you do.

Recently, I was hired by a client with a “professionally” written resume that had cost him in excess of $200. The opening statement on his “professional resume” read as follows:

Strategic, dedicated and analytical operations, production, and distribution manager with over 20 years experience exceeding revenue, cost, productivity, quality, service, and delivery goals. Track record of devising cost effective programs and policies to streamline processes, reduce operational costs, and boost profit margins. Communicator and mentor able to lead highly skilled cross-functional teams in the design, development and implementation of cutting-edge solutions to complex business challenges

What does this candidate actually do? Overuse of keywords in a resume can be detrimental to your job search.  If this resume came across the desk of many hiring managers, it would likely have been tossed after reading the first two sentences. Let’s take a look at how I rewrote that same statement, explaining his experience and position in much better form:

Senior Manufacturing and Plant Operations Executive with more than 20 years experience working in high output environments. Consistently exceeds goals within revenue, cost, productivity, quality, services and delivery. Strategic, dedicated and analytical Manager experienced in operations, production, and distribution. Proven track record devising cost effective programs and policies in order to streamline processes, reduce operational costs, and boost profit margins. Possess strong communication skills and the ability to interact and mentor at all levels within highly skilled cross-functional teams.

This resume now more clearly tells the reader what the candidate does, then proceeds to explain in a concise manner how those tasks were performed effectively. It also highlights what skills were used to accomplish those tasks. The first sentence alone conveys a more experienced candidate; one who is not trying to impress the reader with his choice of “keywords”.  The use of keywords is important, but they must communicate a clear message to the reader. Many “professional” resume writers have a difficult time with this task. The average writer doesn’t specialize in resumes. I’m not just a writer; I am an experienced staffing professional that knows how to build a great resume.

Why do I need Social Media/Networking help?

Unless social networking is a way of life for you, you likely feel very overwhelmed by the number of options available and how to use them. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook – which networks are right for you? Most of all, how do they work in your favor? Most job seekers fail to realize how effective these networks can be in developing their “online” reputation (both positively and negatively). If you’re not careful with your online conduct, you could lose a job opportunity. I have more than 15 years of experience in online networking; I help you determine what social networks are right for you, coach you through building your profile and creating real connections to build your network. More importantly, I can show you how to keep certain networks private.  Social networks are vital to your job search success. Let me show you how! You’ll be amazed at the doors it can open up for you.

These are the reasons we continue to push for ways to make our recruiting efforts more streamlined and effective. How can we create solid pipelines of talent while still remaining on task and sane? The fundamental core of recruiting is forever changing, evolving with the development of technology. Some of this technology is proving useful and others are not. So without further adieu, let’s review 5 Recruiting Trends for 2010:

1. Social Media

Twitter is clearly leading the path in this trend. While sites like LinkedIn have fostered stronger and more prevalent professional connections, we all know that connections require some kind of prior relationship (in most cases, with the exception of LION). However, Twitter has allowed recruiters (and job seekers alike) to find potential connections they may not know. Twitter removes some of the formality of making crucial hiring connections and allows a bit more of our personality to shine through. Ultimately, recruiters are interested in who is going to make the best impression for their client and a standard resume doesn’t always reflect it.

Social media – including Facebook and MySpace – are platforms which allow us to be found by others. Friends, family, potential employers and potential employees. If you aren’t using these mediums yet, then you will quickly be left in the dust by your counterparts. This is the #1 Recruiting Trend for 2010. Candidates and clients will be judging your use of social media as a gauge of your abilities to be resourceful.

2. Relationship building

This sort of goes hand in hand with social media, as that is what created this trend of relationship building to begin with. However, even outside of social media – more recruiters are taking an interest in building long term relationships with not only their candidate pool but also with their industry peers. Gone are the days of the “mine, mine!” mentality where agency recruiters protected information with a death grip to prevent anyone “stealing” their information or clients. We are a more open society of gentiles now, respecting boundaries and sharing knowledge that is helpful to others. I attribute this to the “open source” and social media movements. Information sharing has become a huge party of our societal status. Not to mention that it just feels better to have real relationships built on trust and respect.  If you are interested in building pipelines of talent, you will pay attention to this trend.

3. Mobile recruiting

I’m not sure where this fits into corporate environments just yet but from an agency perspective, this is genius. There are also many definitions of “mobile recruiting” but the trend I’m going to define here is specifically targeted to agency recruiters in the temp and contract areas of placement. Whether you are placing clerical, light industrial, technical or healthcare personnel, mobile recruiting is something you should be looking into.  This is possibly one of the fastest growing sectors of recruiting technology. Picture it like this: you have an “available” list of candidates in your database for placement. A job comes in from a client and it matches 50 of those profiles. You send a notification through the database to all matching candidates, which in turn sends an SMS text alerting them of the job and instructing them to call into the office for more details. Rather than spending all afternoon calling all of your available candidates, you notify all of them in one swift motion – they come to you. This sounds like good technology to me. I’m not sure which ATS systems are using this yet, but I’d love to hear of some!

4. ATS Evolution

Speaking of ATS – Applicant Tracking Systems – I sense from my recruiting peers that an overhaul is needed in this area.  Traditional, large scale ATS systems like Taleo make social media recruiting extremely difficult. In fact, most applicant tracking systems are as far away from social as possible. They leave most job seekers feeling like pawns at the gate of the kingdom, begging to be let in. While ATS systems have their place, helping to automate the applicant process and store critical data, they have yet to truly integrate the relationship aspect of recruiting. Most successful recruiting is not done through an ATS. It is done through relationship building and referrals. There is a revolution bubbling under the surface – recruiters want more flexibility in how they identify great candidates while still remaining OFCCP compliant. I suspect that most ATS companies that are paying attention will be finding ways to make these necessary systems more effective for social media recruiting and relationship building.

5. Job Board Revolution

Many of you know that I run a job board, that’s no secret. One of the reasons that I started JobShouts was to create a cost effective and useful job board that was focused on creating relationships and bringing better matches to both candidates and employers. As a recruiter, I got tired of using the big job boards like Monster or Dice. The job postings were way too expensive for the volume of jobs that I had – not to mention the responses I got were often large in volume but small in qualifications. It was very frustrating, to say the least.

It’s comforting to know that other recruiters share my sentiment and are branching out to more niche job boards and spending their money more wisely on them. Gone are the days of $500 job postings and “the largest job board on the planet”. Who cares about volume if the content is crappy? Recruiters are getting smart and demanding more for their money. The job boards that remain fat, with their heads buried in the sand, will quickly fade into the mist. Monster, are you listening?

It’s an all too familiar story, really. Many casualties of this recession have been long term employees of small businesses who suddenly find themselves without a job and without a clue about how to find a new one. Does this sound like you? You might be wondering, “where do I begin?” You might also be surprised when I tell you that job boards should not be your focus. Of course, they should be included in your job search efforts but they should not be the only sites you rely upon nor should they be where you spend most of your job search efforts.

First, let me tell you about 3 things that you MUST do/have before you start your job search:

1. You MUST have a resume. If you can afford to pay a professional, then I’d advise you to do so. If you cannot, then there are a plethora of available resources to help you but you have to invest the time in getting it done or you are simply extending your unemployment. Make sure you have it stored on someplace other than just on your home computer. A CD is great but you should also keep a copy in gmail, yahoo or other free email account so that you can pull it up from anywhere. You never know when you might need it!
2. Get a LinkedIn profile. This is just as important as having a resume. LinkedIn is the number one “go to” site for recruiters when they are looking for potential candidates. Not to mention, it’s a great place to make connections and network with other professionals in your line of work. Building your profile should be fairly self explanatory, as LinkedIn does a great job indicating how complete your profile is and what needs a finishing touch. If you aren’t sure how one should look, search profiles of other professionals in your industry. Find one that is complete and review it carefully. There are a lot of things you can include on your LinkedIn profile now such as blogs and tweets.
3. Get a Twitter profile. Stop saying, “I don’t Twitter.” Stop saying, “I don’t get Twitter.” If you want to be noticed, this is a MUST HAVE tool.  If you don’t get it, then read Twitter Tips. Then go build your profile and don’t flake out. Santa is watching and so is God. They will know if you skip this step.

Now that you have a resume, a LinkedIn and a Twitter profile, you’re ready to start! Here’s what to do next:

1. ENGAGE. Here is the hard part. Most are afraid to jump in and start networking but you can’t be. Start with friends and family if that helps – connect with them on these platforms and let them know that you are actively job searching. Ask for leads. Don’t be afraid to tell anyone that you are out of work – this is NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. Not telling people isn’t going to help you and they will still know you are unemployed eventually.
2. Get INVOLVED! LinkedIn has thousands of groups and you should be a part of them! Search the groups on LinkedIn for keywords in your industry. These groups will lead you to others in your line of work that you can network with. In addition, there are job search groups that can help with additional tips and guidance. Make sure you continue to stay involved once you start! If you want people to take you seriously, this is the key. Besides, if you aren’t involved you won’t be on top of your game. Consistently staying involved is more likely to net more leads and connections.
3. Get out from behind the computer. Yes, you read that correctly. This was the advice that worked like a charm for my most recent client. Visit every temp and employment agency that you can.  Don’t rule out temporary work because full time work can often be found through them. That doesn’t mean send them all your resume by email. I mean shower, get dressed like you’re going to interview, get in your car (or on the subway, bus, train, whatever!) and beat feet. People don’t generally ignore you in person like they might be tempted to do through email. Make sure you bring paper copies of your resume as well as a CD with a Word Doc version of your resume on it.
4. Review these tips as often as necessary and ask yourself, “Am I doing what it takes to get noticed?”

The most important thing to remember is to be kind to yourself. Job searching is a tough task for anyone and it can wear you down. Try to follow as normal a routine as you can. Maintain your Monday through Friday schedule; get up early and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Although your job search should be a full time job, you should still be taking time off. Weekends are a great time to recharge and doing so will help you remain sharp.

Do you have additional tips to share on how to get noticed in today’s work force? Please feel free to share them with us!

That being said, I’m going to give you some Twitter Tips to guide you on your path to understanding Twitter and making it useful for you.

1. Sign up. This might sound basic but I want to be sure I’m specific so I don’t lose anyone. When you sign up, it’s important to choose an appropriate user name. You want one that identifies you but doesn’t use up too many characters. This is to allow people to “re-tweet” things you say without your username using up too many of those 140 characters. (I’ll explain re-tweet later on in this article)
2. Complete your profile. A complete profile will contain your name, a nice close-up picture, your location and a short bio and a link. This link can be whatever you want it to be – your LinkedIn profile, your blog, your facebook page – whatever. Just make sure that the link you include is an appropriate representation of yourself. Remember, employers use social media too. I recommend using city, state for your location. This makes it easier for locals to find you.
3. Set your preferences. Do not protect your tweets. This is pointless unless you’re only using Twitter to talk to your 5 personal friends in real life. Twitter is a social tool. It’s meant to be used as such. On the mobile tab, you can activate your Twitter account on your mobile phone. This is useful so that you can route direct messages, or messages from certain people to your cell phone as text messages. That way when you’re not on Twitter you can still get that important message. You can also set time preferences, such as “only receive updates between 7 am and 11 pm” or whatever time frame works for you.
4. Find people to follow. This is the key to engaging on Twitter. In order to have conversations with people, or find a way to network with people you don’t know, you have to start by following them. First, decide who you are interested in following. It might be local people, other people in your industry or line of work, others with common personal interests, etc. Of course, you can start by following people you know, too! Often, people we know are a great source for finding other interesting people to follow. Find out who your friends or colleagues are following and go from there.
5. Be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was a Twitter network. Networking takes time and patience. It also takes involvement, so the less active you are the longer it will take. Keep that in mind. The more people you follow the more opportunities you will find to engage others and begin relationships. Quality of followers is more important than quantity.
6. Be aware! Like anywhere else on the internet, there are bots, scammers and viruses roaming on Twitter. If you get an odd direct message from someone asking you to click on a link – don’t do it. Reply and ask them what it’s about or if it’s legitimate. Sometimes these messages even seemingly come from those you know well – but don’t be fooled. Chances are, that person’s account has been compromised by a hacker. Err on the side of caution.
7. Don’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t say out loud to a room full of people. Self explanatory, no?
8. Re-tweet when you can. A re-tweet is forwarding of someone’s tweet to your followers. If you like something someone has said, or like an article they tweeted, you can re-tweet it. This is a sign of endorsement by you and complimentary to the person you re-tweeted. This is often seen as a sign of endorsement of that tweeter and their content. If you want people to notice you, re-tweet them. It’s the highest form of flatter on Twitter and will get people looking at your profile – and hopefully, following you!
9. @ or Direct Message - If it’s something you wouldn’t say to someone in front of other people, then save it for a Direct Message. If the person you want to send the direct message to isn’t following you though, you won’t be able to send it to them. In such case, you can send an @ reply to that person asking them to follow you so that you can DM. @ replies are public, Direct Messages are not.
10. “What do I talk about?” This is the most asked question and it’s something I cannot answer for you. For each person the answer to this is different. However, consider what you’re using Twitter for. For most, you will want to present a professional image, but Twitter is also the place to let your personal side show. People are interested in who you are, not just what you do. Sharing things about yourself, your profession, industry related articles, funny things, technology news, etc. Just remember that what you tweet about will determine who finds you/follows you!

Do you have more tips to add to this list? Have you learned through your own trial and error what works? Please share!

The competition for jobs is fierce. Fortunately our friends at Google have built this incredibly powerful search engine. An engine that is very hungry for content.

If you’re using Google to look for a job, you are probably using in the typical job board search method; skill set + location. You can do much better. Those type of search results are typically content from the 3 big job boards: Monster, Careerbuilder and Yahoo’s Hot Jobs.

While those sites often have legitimate opportunities, they are often so congested with job seekers that  getting through to the hiring manager is nearly impossible. Imagine a company with two sales positions inundated with over 1000 respondents. They may not have the resources to even look at 10% of those responses in any kind of detail. How do you stand out?

Be proactive – get ahead of the game! This is where your advanced tools come into play, including Google. Advanced search is a very powerful method of locating information. Online job ads are just that; pieces of information shared in cyberspace. You can find job opportunities in a wide array of methods; Search Engines, social networks, coffee shops and networking events.

How to search Google for Jobs

Have you noticed the advanced search link at google.com? Just to the right of the text field in little tiny letters, is the advanced search link. This is where Google can help you immensely. A plethora of options are presented to the search savvy user. Be specific with your questions for Google (called queries). For those with specific skill sets, make sure your search string includes those skills. Use your location as part of the search string as well. Other locations in your area can be combined using the boxes separated by the  Boolean operator OR. You may search for exact phrase matches, you may also exclude phrases. You can search specific sites by entering what sites to limit your search to. Linkedin.com and craigslist.org come to mind. You can find fresh content by clicking the Date, usage rights, numeric range and more option. This will help by only showing content that has been added to Google’s  index within last hour, day, week , month, or year. You can sort by date, or relevance. Hopefully by now you are beginning to see how powerful this tool can be in a job search. Often times when a company posts a job on their own site, it is indexed by Google rather quickly. The downside to this is that almost no one knows about that employers web or career portal. Company results rarely show up in Google’s organic job search results. When they do it is almost always because it is sponsored on a popular job site. Guess what? Many companies have stopped using the big 3 to post their jobs.

Do you see where this is going? Think outside the box, be specific in your search, try new methods. Use Google’s advanced search to your advantage. Do you really just need a job, any job? Search the last 24 hours or the last week in several neighboring cities. If you find something interesting, again be pro-active get more information about the company using a tool like jobshouts.com socializer web search to locate people on social networks. You can search for company names, people’s names or job skills.

For Recruiters, our newest tool is now in beta testing and we need your help and feedback! We’ve put together a search tool we call Talent Search, that allows you to search multiple social networks in one click. You can search MySpace, VisualCV, Spoke, Jigsaw and LinkedIn. (we are also working on adding more!)

Go to http://bit.ly/4CEHuv and do a search. It could be for PHP in Dallas, “Business Analyst” in Ontario, Cosmetologist in NYC – anything!   Once you get your search results, click on the profiles to view them. Our “Shout Bar” will appear at the top of the screen and allow you to “Star This” candidate for later evaluation. (the “star this” feature is not fully developed just yet, so while you can star candidates, you don’t have the ability to view the starred list just yet)

We’d like to gauge interest in this tool to help us determine value, pricing, etc. For now, it’s free. Tell all your friends and let us know what you think! Comments, questions – all feedback is welcome!!

It’s frustrating as a job seeker to see the same job over and over, knowing you’ve applied and are qualified for the job but haven’t been contacted. Why does this happen? Are they looking for the “perfect” candidate?

No.

Chances are they aren’t even really looking for a candidate.

Why then, is the job posted? Here is where I let you in on a nasty little secret of the staffing industry. That job posting was paid for when that employer renewed their contract with the major job board. That might have taken place a year ago, a month ago or anywhere in between. Employers are often charged hundreds of dollars per job posting in advance; what this means for the job seeker is that often times “bogus” jobs are posted in an effort to not waste money. How does this make sense? Let me explain.

Since the job ads are already paid for, employers want to make sure they are “getting their money’s worth” even if they have ZERO job openings. If their contract is about to expire or if they hire a certain skill-set on a regular basis, many employers will post general job openings with these skills in order to “build a pipeline”. In other words, they are simply candidate mining. All these employers want is your information for their database, in exchange for the price they paid for that job listing.

Now to you as a job seeker, this seems completely unfair and cruel. Why post a job that isn’t real? From a business perspective it’s easy to understand. It’s like vacation time – use it or lose it. Employers would rather post a fake job to gather potential candidates for later use than to “lose” a job posting they’ve paid hundreds of dollars for. Unfortunately, it’s discouraging to job seekers and makes them wary of using job boards at all, so this is a trend with a backlash for employers.

So how can you tell if a job posting is “real”?  The truth is, you can’t. As a job seeker, as frustrating as it may be to encounter this type of situation, I’m afraid it’s unavoidable if you’re truly “pounding the pavement”. What’s important to remember is that if you don’t receive a response to your application, don’t send another for the same job. Wait until you see a different job opening or until 6 months has passed to apply for the same job. If you’ve applied for the same job twice within a 1 year period, you’re either not what the company is looking for, or you could be responding to a  bogus posting.

The good news is, even if you’ve applied to a bogus job posting it isn’t going to hurt you. It means that company that mined your information may eventually call you about that dream job! It might just be 6 months or a year too late.

By the same token, employers complain about the lack of quality applicants on job boards. Job seekers fail to follow application instructions or reply to positions for which they aren’t qualified. Employers become complacent about responses from job board applicants, likely thinking they aren’t going to find the candidate they want to hire in that stack.

It goes without saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we truly want to change the landscape of job searching and recruiting we have to change the approach. Job boards can be a very useful tool for both employers and job seekers, if utilized properly!

Job Seekers, consider this: Do you think you have a better chance of getting that job by submitting a good cover letter and targeted resume to a job posting? Or do you think you’d have a better chance by doing all of that and making a social connection within the hiring company? What if you were the hiring manager? Would you be more interested in interviewing someone you know nothing about, or someone with which you have made a connection and know something about? Making that connection helps make you a real person instead of just a personality-deficient resume.

Here are some quick do’s and don’ts for Job Seekers:

Do use job boards. All of them, any of them.

Do use targeted resumes. (modified resume containing job key words)

Do use cover letters when applicable.

Do use social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to connect with potential employers and recruiters.

Do use the power of Google to help you learn about the companies you want to work for (or the ones that are advertising openings).

Don’t be afraid to make those connections! You don’t catch a fish with an empty hook!

Don’t be a pest! It’s unprofessional and makes you look desperate. Calling multiple times a day or sending more emails when you haven’t yet received a response guarantees you won’t.

Don’t complain. People are watching you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Complaining about how much your job search sucks doesn’t make you a more attractive candidate.

Don’t give up! Job Searching can be tough on the self-esteem. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, it won’t help you. Treat your job search like a job and make sure you take off 2 days a week like you are supposed to. You need that time to recharge.

I’m sure we have some readers that can contribute more to this list of do’s and don’ts. We encourage you to list yours! As for how we can get employers back into shape with regard to using job boards properly, well that’s another blog post. Stay tuned!

- Robin M. Eads, Co-Founder & President, JobShouts.com

That’s just about as important as where to look. If your search phrases are not specific enough, you’ll be wasting your time sifting through jobs that are not relevant to your skills or profession. If you’re too tight on your search specifics your results will be too small to work with.

Each person will go about this in a slightly different way. Dependent on your skill sets your search phrases will vary. However, the logic behind search queries will be fairly consistent across almost any profession.

Boolean Search operators are very useful when conducting a search on google. Setting up google alerts to do this for you should be a integral part of your job search arsenal.

Before you begin your search, first make a list of keywords related to your chosen industry. Also make a list of cities, or geographical locations that you will be searching for jobs in.

When you enter your keywords into search fields, you can search for either a specific word or string of words. This can prove useful when you wish to enter multiple criteria e.g. software developer Tampa Florida. If your job requires a particular skill or qualification you may also wish to include this e.g. C#, PHP, Java, SQL etc.

Do not enter words that are not keywords, a, an, the, at, on etc. There is no need for them and they could throw your results off. You might just end up with movie titles for results. Not what you are looking for.

Use the Boolean operators  AND, OR, and NOT.

You can also combine words using AND, OR, and NOT. For example, network AND engineer will search for jobs which contains both the words network and engineer, although not necessarily next to each other.

Sales OR manager will search for jobs which contain either the word sales or manager.

Sales NOT manager will search for jobs which contain the word sales but not manager.

You can also search for a phrase by typing it exactly as you wish it to appear. E.g. typing “Quantity Surveyor” would return jobs containing the phrase ‘quantity surveyor’. placing your search phrase inside of quotes will return result that only match what was put into the quotes.

Try this search string (without the quotes) in Google and see what you get.  “(job, tampa, fl) network OR engineer -Novell”.

Parentheses ( )If you are sure about one search term, but not so sure about the others, you can group them together with parentheses. For example, I know for sure I want to search jobs in Tampa, fl. I also told Google to narrow my results to postings that contain network OR engineer but not Novell. Since I don’t know squat about Novell, why would I need to see search results that need filtering further?

Just try to keep in mind that Google automatically inserts the AND statement automatically anytime you enter multiple keywords. Most job search engines do as well, but if your not getting results use the AND statement. See if it helps; each person should get comfortable using operators, and search phrases that are relevant to their own careers, and goals.

Searching for jobs on twitter.

This is where your search takes on a different spin. Twitter and job authorities on twitter make use of what is known as hashtags. Hashtags are preceded by the ‘#’ symbol. e.g. #jobs or #seojobs, or #prjobs.

Here is an example search phrase to put into a search window in tweetdeck or twhirl. #jobs tampa .net developer. Not using a 3rd party client like tweetdeck of twhirl? Well if you’re serious about your job search you should be.

Using a tool to manage your search on twitter, such as Tweetdeck or Twhirl will put your search on autopilot. You wont have to sit in front of your computer waiting for the perfect job to come along. Leave your client running in the system tray and check it periodically.

Good Luck with your job search I hope this helps. If you would like to contribute more information to this article feel free to contact me @tall_geek on twitter.

2009 marked the beginning of a new era in America.  A new president is in the oval office. Social media is taking center stage in the web 2.0 movement. Job boards are getting a lot of attention from job seekers.  This article is designed to assist the job-seeker. It includes ideas and information gathered from a variety of resources. It details the specifics of using LinkedIn to build your career network, and ideas on how to grow and develop your social networks.

It’s not the be all, end all guide that will guarantee your immediate success. It takes time to build and develop a network. There is no 30 second microwave networking class that actually works. JobShouts.com wants to help by providing ideas and solid advice. Please share this by passing this information along to your peers, friends, family members, or anyone affected by the current employment crisis.

Using LinkedIn effectively in your search

1. After you have your account at linkedin.com you will need to get everyone you know on your network. Search for people you have worked with in the past, as well as companies you have worked for. Try to get as many recommendations as possible. This will take time, but will be worth it in the long run.
2. Create a list of companies you would like to work for. This can be done by searching google for jobs available, the skill sets you have, or industry news.
3. Use aggregate job boards like Indeed and Simply Hired to see what jobs are available, and what companies are hiring. Create a short list of ten that you are interested in to start with.
4. Using the list in Step 2 search your network on linkedin for contacts in those companies that might be able to help you. The higher up the better. Make sure they are open to talking about job openings by looking at their preferences. Make sure you follow linkedin’s rules and etiquette or you might end up blocked. Create a second list from the companies you found from your search on the job boards. Search for contacts in these companies too.
5. By now you should have a list of contacts in the companies you are interested in working for. Some have posted jobs and some have not. How you approach them will be different. For companies not advertising the job you want. Send the contact a message or request an introduction through mutual contacts stating in one sentence what you are looking for and if they know who would be best to talk to in the company. For companies with job postings, you will include the title in the message but still keep it to one or two lines.
   Either way, your message should be brief, and to the point. Include your name, phone number and email in the message.
6. You will find some people will not respond, some will point you to HR. Many will respond to you with a person or offer to send your resume in if you send it to them. Even if they respond telling you they do not know it is okay. I will tell you why next.
7. As with any job search it truly is a numbers game. So you need to be doing a lot of these messages, introductions, etc. Which means you will probably need to up your membership to  premium. Especially if you do not personally know many people in the target companies.
8. This process is a lot of work and we have not included all the details to using LinkedIn effectively. Try this search on Google as there are a lot of blogs, ebooks, and guides to effectively using Linkedin.
   

Use Twitter for Your Job Search

Twitter is probably the most talked about social tool on the web today, news media is displaying tweets in scroll bars on live feeds. People are using it to connect with peers and industry leaders. Some have even tweeted themselves into new jobs, 140 characters at a time. Twitter has been labeled as competition for whats happening right now in the search markets.

What Can Twitter Do For You?

1. Provide access to other professionals in your field. When you follow key industry leaders, you’ll know who spends time with them, what conferences they attend, what they’re reading and what is on their minds. This is great information to leverage for your search.
2. Provide exposure and credibility as well as personal and professional relationships when you connect to others in your industry.
3. Offer you a venue to demonstrate your expertise and share information in quick, pithy bursts of wisdom. This is perfect if you don’t have the time or energy to create a blog.

Unique Aspects of Twitter

1. It is casual and immediate and a great place to “meet” informally.
2. You’ll find an array of people on Twitter, including CEO’s, top-level executives, hiring managers, recruiters and everyone in-between! It’s one-stop shopping for your networking needs. You’ll be surprised to find that stars in your field (mentors) may follow you if you reach out to them!
3. Unlike Facebook, where it is kind of creepy if you start trying to “friend” people who are connected to your contacts, it is acceptable (and expected) to follow people on Twitter because another friend or colleague does.
4. It forces you to be brief. Coming up with your “Twit-Pitch” – what you have to offer in 140 characters or less – will help you clarify your value proposition. Remember: less is more!

Convinced? What To Do First?

1. Brand yourself professionally. If you are planning to use Twitter for a job search, set up a designated profile and account. Choose a professional Twitter handle using your name or some combination of your name and profession that sounds good and is easy to remember. For example, JaneSmith or MarketingExpertJane.
2. Take time to create a professional profile that will attract your target market. If you don’t have a website, link to your LinkedIn profile.
3. Before you follow anyone, start posting some tweets! Don’t succumb to the temptation to share your lunch menu…Tweet about an article, an idea or share a link of professional interest to your targeted followers. Do this for a few days. It may seem strange to be tweeting when no one is following, but you may be surprised to gain an audience before you even try. Once you have a great profile and a set of interesting tweets, start following people in your industry. Aim high! Follow stars – some will follow you back.
4. Continue to build your network by using Twitter Search and Twitter’s Find People tool. Manually review profiles and use Twubble to help you find new people to follow. Use directories such as Twellow and TwitDir. Grow your network slowly – you don’t want to follow 1000 people and have only 30 following you. That makes you look spammy, not professional.
5. Give, give, give! Think about what you can do for others. Don’t blatantly self-promote. Instead, help promote others. “Retweet” (pass along information someone else shared, giving them credit) – you will earn followers and friends this way. Those who know (and like) you will become part of your network and will be willing to help you.