Social Media and Your Job Search

One of my favorite topics to talk about, present on and teach people to do is utilizing social media effectively when job searching...and by extension using it to build a brand, when transitioning to a different field/industry, and to proactively take control of one's Internet profile.

I am sharing below an abbreviated version of a workshop presentation I do on a monthly basis on the topic.

I'd love to field any questions about the topic here via the comments or by email: alexandra@aacareercounsel.com. Enjoy!

What TO do:

•  Conduct a self-search to know what’s out there about you

•  Share that you are looking for a job as well as what kind of job (however discrete you choose to be)

•  Stay active and engaged/engaging

•  Create your own opportunities by helping others

•  Balance in-person (networking) with online networking 

•  Try social media, other than the three major networks, for further demonstrating creative interests

•  Use social media manager applications to more easily control content 

What NOT to do:

·    •  Have bad grammar and typos

·    •  Have photos and images exhibiting questionable behavior

·    •  Badmouth current or previous employers and/or co-workers, and in general focus on negativity

     •  Be unaware of changing privacy policies with each network

·    •  Over utilize social media at work during work hours!

     •  Be afraid of social media if it’s new to you!

References:

5 Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search by Julie Feinerman

10 Smart Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search by Alexis Grant

How Social Media Can Help (or Hurt) Your Job Search by Stacy Julien

Job Search Balance: Social Networking vs. In Real Life by Abby Ringiewicz

Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies by Joshua Waldman

Smart Social Media Helps Jobs Find You by George Anders  

The Best Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search by Trudy Steinfeld

Your Employee Is an Online Celebrity. Now What Do You Do? by Alexandra Samuel

Getting the Job: It IS All About Who You Know

You have heard the saying, likely, that getting a job is all about who you know. In discussion with a colleague of mine recently, I realized that I am more in agreement with that statement than I have ever been. 

I was not always as sure because in my job hunting experience, the outcomes have not been attributed to just one factor. For example, I was able to be placed in a paid internship before through a cold contact who referred me to someone within the organization, where I had neither visited nor met any employees before! On the other hand, I have never had anyone say "I have a job for you" and place me in it either, with no formalities involved, which I think the 'who you know' bit can lend to.

So, how is that I have come to agree with this adage, given my varied experiences? Here’s where the light bulb came on: YOU are the product that's going to market in the world of work, and definitively knowing yourself (your aptitude, strengths, interests, core values, worth, etc.), as well as how to articulate those things properly, makes the biggest difference.

Being able to speak confidently about what you have to offer and how that meets an employers need, as well as demonstrate a track record of success (for yourself and your former employers) makes the best case for why a hiring manager needs you on their team! Not sure where to begin with learning how to know you and discuss your merits effectively? Here are few easy things you can do to jump start the process:

Take a Self-Assessment 

• Self-assessments can help to confirm what you like, your personality, or your preferences for reasoning and relating to others, while connecting that information to particular jobs or fields of work.

• There are several short and free instruments online that can give you a snap shot into the mentioned items, but represent larger, statistically valid and reliable assessments, at cost e.g. O*NET Interest Profiler, Jung’s Typology Test, Keirsey Temperament Sorter- II, the abridged DISC

Get Feedback from Family, Friends, and Co-Workers

• Arguably, the people you’ve grown up around or are currently closest to can offer insight into your strengths, inclinations, and communication style--all of which are important things to know how and when to share in a job interview, for instance.

Talk to a Career Counselor

• Once you've had the experience of informally collecting data on yourself, talking to a Career Counselor can help you with deepening the connections you've begun to make, more formalized assessment, exploring additional findings, or charting your next steps.

• I would love to help you navigate the process of making the best presentation you can to potential employers. Contact me today at alexandra@aacareercounsel.com. 

Prepare to be Googled!

I love how some things in our society develop that once were not, and then become part of our everyday active experience and vernacular. For instance, Google, a giganterrific, if I may take a liberty, is a powerhouse company innovating all things Internet and technology related (responsible, in part, for powering this very blog site) has also become a verb (the linguistic term for the phenomenon I'm describing is called back-formation in case you wondered!).

It follows, then, that one can be, and very often is, Googled!

Depending on your use of public, Internet-based programs and social networks, you have an Internet foot print. It can be a professionally appropriate one or quite the opposite, and if you're in the market for a job, the former is what you want potential hiring managers and recruiters to have the most immediate access to.

You can make sure to present a positive, genuine and appropriate Internet presence either proactively or re-actively. Using both stances is the best approach. Here are some quick things you can do and consider to have your Internet presence displayed in a professional way:

1. Google Yourself: The best way to know what others might see is to find out yourself! Using the major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) type in the various versions of your name that you might use, check out the results, and do it often.

2. Create Fodder for the Search: Leveraging social media, professional Web sites and blogs with search engine optimization, is the quickest way to bring search results to the top, and push other results that may not be as appealing further down. Create social media pages or a simple Web site just for your career interests, and take to Twitter to tweet (another back-formation!) about your love for, experience with, and expertise or latest news in Mechanical Engineering when looking for a position in that industry, for instance.

3. Privatize Personal Accounts: On the Internet, private is never really private, so act accordingly, but some measures create more private circumstances. Check each social network for privacy settings and disclosures about what that means for what you post.

4. Be nice and say please: If there are images or other content that is posted with you or about you by other sources, you can contact those entities and ask that the information be removed or opt out.  That does not guarantee that the information in question won't be able to be accessed, but it may make it a little more difficult.

In sum, get ahead of the search engine game, and if it's too late, do the necessary catch up.

Welcome to AACareerCounsel!

My name is Alexandra Arrington and I am a career counseling and consulting professional with interests in helping people from all walks of life to create useful tool kits and learn about available resources to address various career development needs.

My diverse background and experience have yielded hundreds of people that I've been able to help, which is a great honor. I have worked most closely with those early in their careers, namely college students and young adults to build professional profiles on paper and/or online through resume and cover letter critiquing and building or using social networks. I have more recent experience working with people to overcome a variety of different barriers to employment they may face, be it mental or physical health concerns, criminal background, lacking basic skills or inexperience. Helping those making career transitions or those looking to advance their current careers, and providing career development workshops, presentations, and one-one career counseling are other areas of significance. Visit my website to contact me or express interest in contracting services: www.AACareerCounsel.com.

The variety of experience I've gained has produced informs this blog. I intend for it to serve as an introduction to information that I have found helpful or interesting, to my opinions on career related issues, and to other useful segments where people have messaged me with questions they would like to have addressed.

I’m looking forward to sharing insights and informational quick tips about things you may have thought of or may not have related to career development!

Some topics I am developing and collecting content for include the following:

• Prepare to be Googled!
• Looking for Anything? Guaranteed to Generate Nothing
• You Need a Needs Assessment: Knowing What You Need, Gets You What You Want
• Résumé 101 and 202 and 303...
• Navigating Illegal Interview Questions
• Going From No Work Experience to Whoa! Work Experience
• Breaking Into a New Field
• The Myth of the General Résumé
• Career vs. Job vs. Employment vs. Work: A Discussion of Terms and Meaning
• Help Me Help You!
• The Blessing and Curse of Social Media
• A Brief Lesson on Counseling History

Welcome and stay tuned…