Job Hunting: Promote Yourself

The web is constantly changing, we all know that. What most of us don’t do is change with it. You need to go further than just sending in resumes if you want to compete for jobs. There are now plenty of new ways to promote yourself. For one, networking has gone online. Join social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Next, talk about yourself. If you’re not telling people how awesome you are, no one else will. Brag it up. Here are some ideas on how to use new media.

Blog It

Once again, BRAG. You need to toot your own horn. Get started by blogging about yourself and your job experience. Make yourself interesting. It doesn’t need to be all in one post. Make several posts. And this is a great format to go beyond the resume and cover letter. Include information that is generally left off of resumes. I once interviewed for a job at a HUGE email company. Turns out I got an interview not from what my resume said, but because I had lived somewhere the interviewee’s best friend had once lived. Random? Yes. Did I care? No. The point is, you never know what about you is going to spark that employer to give you a call for an interview. Talk about travel, random jobs, or volunteer experience. Some rules to stick to: stay away from obscene topics, try not to be offensive. Think of it as a first date. Don’t discuss politics, religion or past relationships.

Twitter

Love it. Set up a Twitter account, after all it’s free. Start following job posters, job advice gurus and online resume builders. (*wink wink*) Create lists of job posters and go through their job postings daily to see what job offerings are out there. Listen to the advice of the gurus. You could learn something new that could be the key to your next interview. The great thing about Twitter is that it is a community. Most people are pretty supportive of you. Don’t be afraid to let people know you’re looking for a new job. If you have a personal Twitter account, make sure you are keeping things PC while you are job hunting. You may need to go through and clean up some old posts.

URL

Get your name as a website address and upload your resume. Don’t do anything fancy like adding music. (Unless of course you’re an unemployed musician or related field.) This is a great way to brand yourself. Another idea is to add a link to “other jobs” if you’re resume does not list all your job experience. It is O.K. to upload a picture of yourself. Always play it safe. If you question whether or not it’s appropriate, it probably isn’t. Add the URL to your email signature or business cards. If you’re out a networking meeting and pass out your business card, it will be easy for others to look up your resume for potential job openings.

If you’re still unsure of how to get started there are tons of great books out there you can get on promoting yourself online. The best thing to do is to just get started.