Twitter 104 for Veterans: How to Search for Jobs

4/30/2012

More companies are using Twitter to post job listings and hire recruits. Best of all, using Twitter as part of your job search is easy and free. Twitter helps you build a personal brand, form connections and find job posts, and followers or companies post links or create hash tags for open positions.

If you decide to use Twitter as part of your job search, it is smart to develop an effective and efficient strategy. There are a few easy steps you can take to accomplish this:

Get your account in tip-top shape to make a good first virtual impression

Upload a professional-looking image or avatar
Place your elevator pitch in your Twitter bio
Include a link to an online portfolio or resume (LinkedIn account)
Create a professional-looking Twitter background

Build your brand and follow experts

Tweet about topics in your field that interest you
Follow experts in areas that you are interested in
Follow resume writers, career coaches and employment agencies

Take advantage of hash tags

Follow hash tags related to job searches. These include #jobseekers, #hiring, #jobposting, #jobsearch
Tweet about your job search with hash tags. You can include #hireme, #linkedin, #resume, #unemployed
To find trends about anything career-related, follow these hash tags: #jobtips, #personalbranding, #interview, #employers
For veteran-related hash tags, follow #veterans, #vets, #vetjobs

Signup for TweetMyJobs

This site will send job recommendations directly to your Twitter account. You can indicate what type of jobs or regions interest you. This tool is free to use

Listen to Twitter job chats

These are real-time discussions that are offered for you to follow. Good ones to follow include #HRTechChat and #jobhuntchat

Use Twitter “search” feature for job advice or listings

Go to search.twitter.com
Enter this formula to narrow down topics: “Topic”-RTflilter:links. This formula will provide you with tweets about your topic-it will filter out retweets and extra links
Some keywords to type in the search function include “job openings,” “employment” or “looking for a job”