How to Use Twitter to Find Job

Gone are the days of Twitter being solely a means attention whoring for vapid, self-centered celebrities.  You can still find that, if that's what you're looking for.  I don't know what you're in to.  Who am I to judge?  But there's a whole lot more to Twitter, you just have to know where to look.  And when you're looking for work, every little bit helps.

Related: Using LinkedIn to Find a Job

And Twitter can be a big help if you use it right.  So I've talked before about finding blog posts and articles that tell you what you should do but never how you can do it.  I'm not just going to go on about how great Twitter is to find job postings, I'm going to give you directions on how to actually find them.  And how to make it easier on yourself.

More and more companies and recruitment agencies are posting their job openings on Twitter.  They have a variety of reasons for doing so, the main one being that it's free.  Following a company on Twitter that you'd like to work for is a great idea, whether they tweet jobs or not.  Because when you do apply for a job with them and they take a look at you online - and they will, make no mistake - they're going to be more interested in you if they see that you've taken an interest in them.  But besides that, when a company does tweet a job opening it's usually before they've advertised it anywhere else.  That gives you a jump on the competition.  So if you respond and you're already following them and they see your online presence looks outstanding, you're much more likely to get that interview. 

Related: Is Twitter Worth Your Time?

So how exactly do we find the companies that post jobs?  You can just use the search bar at the top of your Twitter feed.  Search topics like "job postings" "post jobs" "looking for work"....you get the idea.  When you find accounts that post jobs start following them.  A lot of times they'll follow you back.  You can also direct message them to let them know you're looking for a job.  An actual person will see this and in return, they're going to check you out.  If you direct message a recruiter or hiring manager and include links to your information like your LinkedIn profile, Career Presentation, and online resume, you put that hiring manager in a great position to contact you about open jobs.  Just make sure your online presence looks professional, just like your resume.

But if you're following hundreds of different accounts, how do you narrow in on the ones tweeting jobs?  You make a list!  It's very easy.  Just click on Lists on your Twitter profile page.  Next click Create list.  Enter the name of your list.  Name it anything you want, get creative!  Ok, not too creative if you make it a public list.  Remember, people can see it.  If it's public that means others can see and subscribe to your list, but we'll get to that in a minute.  If it's private only you can see what's in there.  When you're done just click Save.  Now you can add certain accounts you follow to your list.  On the list you'll only see the tweets from those accounts that you've added.  If you only add accounts that are posting jobs you've just created your own, personalized job post listing.  Congratulations!

You can also follow other people's lists.  Our Twitter account @CareerDragon has a list called "Job Postings" that you can follow.  We've set it up to contain the tweets of companies, recruiting agencies and job boards that are focused on posting open positions.  Subscribing is easier than setting up your own list.  You don't have to search out the accounts to follow, for one thing and you don't have to set up a list on your own.  It's easy!  Ok, here we go...

First, go view someone's profile.  Like ours.  Click on Lists.  Select which list you'd like to subscribe to.  In our case the list you're probably most interested in is called "Job Posts".  We also have another list composed of recruiters you can join.  It's called "Recruiters".  See? Easy.  Ok, next...after you've selected which list you'd like to join you'll end up on the List page.  Click Subscribe and you'll be all signed up to follow the list.  

Finding a job is challenging these days.  Things have changed and you can't approach it like you used to.  There are a lot of ways to search for a job, you just need to know how best to use them.  It's not impossible and you will find what you're looking for.  It'll happen.  It will.

 If you have any questions about the instructions or want more information just put it in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.