My Twitter Job Search Experiment

From JobBored.com | May 13th, 2010

 

An
hour ago, I posted this. Well, funny enough, I've been sitting on a job
search experiment of my own since it occurred to me last Saturday.
Except, my experiment uses Twitter. So, it's as good a time to try this
as any:

On May 19th, I'm going to start what I hope will be a successful Job
Search Experiment.

If you do nothing else, go to http://www.twitter.com/jobeeachday
and signup to follow JobEachDay.

That's it. What will I be doing with JobEachDay? Read on, and I'll
tell you. I think this could be something great for job seekers
everywhere. It's never been done, but it will only work if we get a lot
of people to participate.

What is my experiment, exactly?

My experiment doesn't involve job boards. It doesn't involve
employers posting jobs. It involves all of us. It involves job seekers
helping other job seekers. It's a true experiment in crowd-sourced job
seeking.

Basically, my experiment is this: I want to broadcast the job someone
is looking for on JobEachDay every day. And I want all the twitter
followers to help that person find a job.

Each day I'm going to be posting someone who's looking for a job. No,
I'm NOT posting a job opening. I'm posting a job SEEKER. So the tweet I
post for JobEachDay on Monday might read:

@redfintuna is a Graphic Designer seeking design work
at any level in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan.

What will then happen - hopefully! - is all of you following on
JobEachDay on twitter will see that. If you have ANY leads, advice,
comments or just anything to help @redfintuna, you will send him
@replies to his twitter account with those leads, advice or comments.

After 24 hours, I will email redfintuna and ask him: "Who gave you
the best lead, advice or comment?"

He will say: "@RedWingsFan7943 gave me the best lead."

I will then contact RedWingsFan2343 and ask him what sort of a job he
is looking for. Then, that day, I will post RedWingsFan7943's job
seeker tweet on Wednesday.

So, on Wednesday, the JobEachDay tweet might read:

@RedWingsFan2343 is a fundraising manager with
extensive experience working for govt. and non-profits. He is looking
for a job in the Cleveland, OH area.

And that's the idea. I want to do a crowd-sourced job search twitter
experiment. Each day we post a job seeker. Each day that job seeker gets
tips. Whoever gives the best tips to that day's tweet gets their OWN
job search tweet the following day.

What if we got JobEachDay to
10,000 followers?

Suddenly, it's job searching by crowd sourcing! It's shouting the job
you need out into the ether and getting an answer back from the void.
It's using the wisdom of tweets!

The goal is to post the job someone is looking for each day (several
each day if we really get rolling) and all of us pulling together to
help that person or persons find a job.

So, go to twitter and sign up to follow JobEachDay right now.

For more on why and how I think this will work, keep reading after
the jump.

For more on what you will get out of participating in this
experiment, keep reading after the jump.

What Will You Get Out Of It

I'm just getting this experiment off the ground, and it's only going
to work if we can get a large group of people to help out.

If it works, it could be a really powerful job search tool.

So, the long and short of it is, if you're in on the ground floor,
it's more likely that you'll be one of the first job seekers I'll pick
to tweet.

And every time you help someone else who's job request has been
tweeted, you're increasing the chances that we'll all be helping you
next!

Why
I Think This Will Work

I've been in the business of resume writing and helping
people find jobs for more than a decade now.

After thousands and thousands of clients, I've found the old saw to
be true: Networking is by far the best way to find a job.

Think about it in your own career. Think of all of of the jobs you've
had. How many did you get because of someone you knew? I bet it's the
majority. Maybe they didn't hire you directly, but maybe they put in a
good word for you, or told you the right things to say or the right
people to talk to.

Now, the problem with job search networking is that it's limited to
who you know. If you happen to know someone who can get you in at a
place you'd like to work, then great! Your job search is over.

But what if you don't know the right people? Short of running into
them at the bus stop and striking up idle conversation (and man... I see
random connections like that happen all the time) there's no way to get
the info you need!

So the job search networking game is asymmetric. Somewhere, someone
out there knows how to get you the job of your dreams. But you don't
know where they are!

I've been obsessed for several years now with this problem of making
the random connections work!

You, dear reader, might be looking for a job in politics. Well, I
have a brother who is high up at a lobbying firm in DC. Wouldn't you
like to get some contacts from him?

Or... my wife works at FedEx. Maybe you've always wanted to drive one
of those trucks around all day. It's a fun job, and the pay and benefits
are fantastic.

Or... what if my last job was at a Law Firm in town that you would love
to work for? I could give you the name of my old boss...

But why would I want to give you any of that info? There's nothing in
it for me.

That's what I'm trying to change

I WOULD be motivated to tell you what I know, if somehow it would
mean that the someone out there who has the inside scoop on the job I
wanted would then be motivated to help ME!

And that's what I'm trying to do with JobEachDay. Tweeter X is
looking for a job in finance. But she sees Tweeter Y's request for a
bartending job. Tweeter X tells Tweeter Y about the help wanted sign at
her local bar and grille. Tweeter X then get's to tweet her finance job
request. And someone out there there is a Tweeter Z who knows about a
finance firm that is hiring.

In short, I'm trying to create a virtuous cycle.

Job seekers helping other job seekers. You help someone else... you in
turn get helped.

Sure, it would also be great if people started helping people out of
the goodness of their hearts. Maybe it makes you feel good. It's a
mitzvah! Your good deed of the day. Either way, I just want to see what
happens if we can get a large mass of job seekers together pooling their
collective intel on the job market.

A Note About What Sort Of Tweets I'm Looking For

In the example above I used concrete examples like: "Person X tells
person Y about a job they know of."

But hey. It doesn't have to be like that. If you have any advice you
think might be helpful... ANY advice or info at all... why not share it?
Even if you don't KNOW of a job, anything you do know might be helpful.

So if I put up a tweet one day that reads: "@teacherpro122 Is looking
for an elementary teaching position in the Miami, FL area"

You could @reply them with whatever advice you might have. Maybe
something like, "I heard they're laying thousands of teachers off in
Florida. But I know they're hiring here in Oregon. Maybe try searching
in Oregon."

That works too!

Any advice, any help... we're just trying to crowdsource job search
advice from whoever has it.

And if you have something that might help, somewhere out there
there's someone with advice that could help you!

PPS...

I posted this early so we could get the word out. This will only work
if we can launch with several hundred followers.

So, if you've signed up to follow? Great.

Please tell people about it. Tweet it. Facebook it. Email it.

Related posts:

1. How
   To Use Twitter To Job Search


2. Twitter
   Proximity Posts?


3. Breaking
   The Job Search Rules


4. Retiree Job Search Tips - Job Tips For
   Over-65 Job Seekers


5. The Google Jobs Experiment - Brilliant Job
   Search Idea