I believe that networking is one of the most important things a person can do for themselves professionally. Being proactive, meeting people and creating opportunities for myself were the key items that ultimately got me a job.It seems like so many people in the Midwest here still don’t use Twitter and just discount it as something silly and not necessary. Heck, some people don’t even know what LinkedIn is let alone using it for their benefit. So this is just a little post I wanted to get out there to show that sometimes Twitter can be a useful thing.
In the end, I turned that position down because I had been offered another, better job, at BrightPlanet. Mr. Bushee, the VP of Development at BrightPlanet, didn’t post any job listings either, but that didn’t stop me from asking if he knew of any openings. I had met Mr. Bushee before at a SD Geeks meeting a couple months before as well as had a couple conversations with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
When looking for a job, I first looked all over the classified section in the newspaper as well as online job listing sites. Either nothing in my field was listed, the position was filled when I called about it or nobody ever bothered to email me back. It wasn’t until I started cold calling businesses and stopping into random places and dropping my resume off that I received my first interview. The first place did not have any listings posted and they weren’t advertising they were looking for anybody. I thought it would be a fun place to work, so I stopped in, talked to the manager and handed him my resume. Two days later, I received a call back from the manager, offering me the job.
I asked Mr. Bushee over Twitter if he or anyone else he knew was looking for some help in their IT department. Mr. Bushee told me he had some projects he needed to get done, asked me to come in for an interview and the rest, as they say, is history.
Networking is nothing new. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. This is the best way to get a job. The internet only makes this easier. Here’s how you do it.
- Get a Twitter account, and get a LinkedIn account.
- Fill in the profiles with accurate information of yourself.
- Follow people you want to work for, work with or that you think might know someone that you want to work for.
- Talk to them. Get to know them. Tell them who you are.
- Let your new connections utilize you. Help people out, answer questions, share your opinion.
- Utilize your new connections. Ask them for help and for their opinion.
There is such a huge population on the internet just waiting to talk to you, help you and hire you. Go out and find them. Open up those opportunities for yourself. Just because a job isn’t listed in the newspaper doesn’t mean there isn’t a job to do. Take my motto, Inflecto Vita, Hack Life. Make the changes to your life to make it exactly what you want it to be.
