When Guardian Careers set me the Twitter Job Challenge, I admit that I had my doubts. Though I use it frequently to search for jobs, I couldn’t imagine that I’d be all that successful in actually getting a job through Twitter alone. I was keen to be proved wrong, though, and so I selected my top five employers, and carefully crafted my tweets:
The informal, informative tweet
For marketing and design agency Nexus I crammed in as much information as 140 characters would allow. After I received no response in a few days, I emailed the contact address with much the same information I’d given Bullet PR.
I got a reply from the sales and marketing director the very next morning. The gist was thanks but no thanks, but good luck. He offered to keep my details on file and explained they were unable to offer work experience because of their low numbers of staff. He offered some advice for starting out in the sector and some sympathy for the situation this year’s graduates have found themselves in. He offered some restrained enthusiasm for Twitter, suggesting that it was a good way to let employers know that you’re keen and available, but he was not exactly effusive in this area.
Result: I made a contact within the company
The speculative tweet
For the big companies I targeted (Futures PLC, HasbroUK and HodderChildrens) I kept my tweet as general as possible. I knew that for companies this big it was unlikely that the person manning the Twitter feed would have any idea about what kind of vacancies were available, but they would likely be well placed to offer advice. I sent a variation of the tweet above to all three, but received no response from any of them.
Over the next week or so, I peppered my twitter feed with these kinds of tweets to a number of big companies such as Waterstone’s (I’m still curious to find out how to get a job in its head office, or even where the vacancies are advertised) and even a shot in the dark for Glamour magazine, hoping that the building momentum of the hashtag would work in my favour. Alas, no.
While this was going on, I kept a tab open to follow the #twitterjobchallenge hashtag to see how my fellow challengers were faring. Over the last few days, I’ve seen employers and recruitment agencies alike get in on the act, both responding to jobseekers using the hashtag, and also to advertise their own available vacancies. It was fascinating to see the individual ways some challengers chose to use the hashtag – and the challenge – to gain the interest of their potential employers. One particular success story that I saw was @emmamaymills, who skipped the spiel and sent a link to her (very impressive) digital CV to a host of individuals who worked for PR companies that she was interested in. Though a couple of employers did warn against spamming, the majority responded with interest and contact details. The digital CV route definitely seems like a great way to go – especially as it neatly solves the lack of space issue inherent in Tweeting – and is something I’m looking into for my job-hunting in the future.
For those continuing on with the challenge, there’s some great advice here about the best ways to use social media in the job-hunt. Good luck.
