Job Search News

I ran into this very interesting infographic on LinkedIn today, thanks to David Merzel‘s post on the Job-Hunt Help LinkedIn Group, and it’s worth sharing.  This graphic was originally published on SearchEngineJournal.com in late August, so it’s current, comparing 2010 and 2011 data.

You will see it includes some of the impact of social media on recruiting and job search, particularly how employers research in social media and the impact of that research.

It’s long and global.  I recommend that you read the whole thing. The data sources are at the bottom of the graphic.  If you click on it, you can see a larger version of it.
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Recruiters and potential employers search Google for job candidates, even in this economy, and Google loves Twitter.  So, by leveraging search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in Twitter, you can make it easier for them to find you, not only in Twitter but also in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

As a job seeker, you want to be found if someone searches on the job title you want, your profession or industry, and also your name.  Your Twitter account will be helpful for you even after you’ve found that next job.  Recruiters and employers are always searching for good people, so this account can become a major long-term asset to your career:

• People Googling your keywords (your job title, profession, industry, etc.) will find you because your Twitter account will appear in the search results, if you have used those keywords as described in the rest of this article.
• People Googling your name will find your Twitter account in the search results if you have used your name as part of your Twitter identity.

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Note: This list has been updated numerous times, and I will continue to update it.
March 15, 2012, is the date of the latest update, which was a major revision.

This is my #Follow Friday list, consolidated and broken up by category. I’ve tried very hard not to leave off anyone who is making a great contribution, and agonized about leaving off several to keep the number to 101 of the most useful.

And, there are many other popular Twitter accounts which provide a mix of content with “personality” and they are not included here. But, they could still be useful to you – it just depends what you want.

Find all these Tweeps and more on Job-Hunt’s Job Search Experts Twitter List.

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Like the Top 50 Employers Recruiting on Twitter, the list of colleges and universities supporting their students and alumni through Career Center/Career Service Twitter accounts is as interesting for who is NOT on it as for who is.

Missing Schools

For me, considering the “missing schools”  raises the question of whether any school’s network is so good that it doesn’t need to reach out to alumni?  Or is it simply that so many schools haven’t recognized the necessity/opportunity provided by Twitter to reach out to help their alums, both to help those alums through difficult time and also to strengthen the bond, demonstrating the value of the institution and the education?

We find several major state universities (Michigan, Oklahoma State, Oregon), in addition to small schools like Macalester College and Cayuga Community College, but not the traditional “big name” schools like Ohio State, Penn State, UCLA, USC, Purdue, Clemson, etc.
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Robert Scoble, aka “scobleizer,” has written an excellent article on how someone who’s been laid off should leverage social networking.  Scoble strongly recommends that every laid off or unemployed job seeker establish a blog.  Of course, being a blogger is how Scoble became scobleizer, and, given what he’s accomplished blogging, he’s probably right.

Blogs are not that hard to create, but they are harder to keep “alive.”

So, how do you become a blogger?

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I’ve been bugging my cousin, Cathy Burns (not her real name), to create a LinkedIn Profile because I think it’s a necessity for anyone who may be in the job market someday.

[Note: this post was updated in March, 2013 when LinkedIn made some major changes to the Profile.  It will continue to be updated.]

Unfortunately, her first name could also be spelled, ”Cathi” or ” Cathie” as well as ”Kathy,” “Kathi,” etc. and her last name could be spelled “Byrnes” as well as “Burns.” To make it more complicated, she’s been married twice, so some people know her with her maiden name, Cathy Miller, and some people know her with one (or both) of her married names, Cathy Sullivan and Cathy Burns.

So, how does someone find Cathy Miller Sullivan Burns on LinkedIn if they are looking for her to make a connection?

This is a MAJOR PROBLEM for my cousin!  And for many of the rest of us, too.

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A poll of nearly 500 recuriters taken during a Web recruiting technology Webinar given today by ERE.net (a website for recruiters) reveals some fascinating information:

1.  Over 66% of the recruiters taking the Webinar use LinkedIn for recruiting.

Wow!  I’ve talked with many recruiters who have said that LinkedIn is an important source for them.  And I’ve also interviewed several job seekers who landed new jobs via LinkedIn.  So, I knew it was important! 

I wonder what the poll results would have been if they’d been asked about using Monster, CareerBuilder, Yahoo HotJobs, etc.?

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We knew it was probably happening, but now we have the proof.  David Meerman Scott has documented people, like David Murray, using Twitter to connect with their next jobs.  In this case, David was looking for a job in the social network world, so Twitter was an obvious venue to use.  It demonstrated his skill as well as connecting him with his market.

In case you don’t know about it, Twitter is the “micro-blogging” network where you don’t have LinkedIn “connections.”  You have “followers” and you “follow” others.  In other words, people subscribe to your “Tweets” and you subscribe to Tweets by others.

Obviously, doing appropriate and interesting Tweets is a skill, but it can be learned, by hundreds of thousands of people obviously.