Business & Work

Elizabeth Bacchus: Job seeking now has a totally different dimension and candidates need to be much more strategic in their job seeking methods if they are going to maximise their success rates. In particular jobs for the over 50’s market, as this has never been more challenging.

Social Media

The use of social media portals in job hunting such as; Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has meant that mature jobseekers can be at a distinct disadvantage, in an already candidate heavy market. The younger generations have embraced social media for job seeking tactics in response to the many companies who now use innovative ways to identify talent for their organisations and reduce their own recruitment costs.

So how can social media help you get that job? One word:

Networking

Having an online profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn for example, should be a critical part of your overall strategy in finding your next role. A well-written profile will assist you in connecting with other members who can help accelerate your job search through their own connections. The recent launch of the LinkedIn’s ‘Job Search’ membership, enables job seekers to review the profiles of hiring mangers within companies so they can identify which of their existing contacts they can leverage to make introductions on their behalf. Small, medium and large companies are using LinkedIn to search for members who have relevant skill-sets and work experience relating to the projects they are recruiting for. With 116 million members and growing at 2-new members per second, LinkedIn is a tool you cannot afford to miss.

Facebook

The popular social networking platform is not just for the younger generation who want to network with their peer group. The portal is being utilised as a powerful resource by job seeker and companies alike. You can even promote your friends who are job seeking to other Facebook family and friends with the ‘Hire My Friends’ application, include a brief description of their skills and link to their LinkedIn profile.

Twitter

Sometimes known as the SMS of the internet has over 200 million users as of 2011. It allows people to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters. Not much space, I hear you say but the majority of users use this space to create a link to their blog or an online CV for instance. Like all social networking tools, finding a job on Twitter is not going happen overnight, but it’s a good starting point in building your online brand.

A great start for those new to the modern techniques of job searching is the recently published ‘Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies’ which provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide on utilising Social Media platforms in your job search campaign.

Online job sites

The internet has opened up a myriad of resources for job seekers who now have the power to leverage online help at the touch of a button. Job sites for example are a powerful way for job seekers to position themselves more effectively. Whilst in the early day’s job sites were generalist, there now exists a huge selection of industry specific sites to make job hunting much easier.

Recommended reading:

- Job Searching With Social Media for Dummies (Joshua Waldon)
- What Colour Is Your Parachute: Practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers (Richard N. Bolles)
- Pitch Yourself 2nd Edition (Bill Faust & Michael Faust)

Elizabeth Bacchus is a Career Coach, Writer and Founder of The Successful CV Company, provider of interview winning CV’s and cover letters to candidates worldwide. www.thesuccessfulcv.com

To read about the more traditional methods for job seeking click here