Today’s Jerusalem Post has an article on using social media, and Twitter specifically, to conduct a job search. David Shamah does a good job explaining the basics, but one sentence really caught my eye:
Job-seekers, especially in a place like Israel, have to work a little harder, nurturing a network of locals, who of course will know better where the local jobs are.
I found my first two jobs in Israel through Facebook. Thanks to networking I did online in the States, I stepped off the plane at Ben Gurion with two interviews, was hired and started work less than a week after I arrived. I used the Facebook equivalent of cold calling: search for someone who works where you want to work, send them a message through Facebook and ask them to put you in contact with someone who actually has the ability to hire you. It worked. Twice.
Though social media marketing (which is what you’re doing even if you prefer to call it by a different name – the product here is you) is a valuable tool in any job search anywhere in the world, it’s a crucial asset for job seekers in a small country where many of the openings are filled before the positions are formally advertised. In this case, Twitter may not get you the job, but it might help you find the opening and strike while the iron is hot. It’s even more important if you’re competing from the underdog role: new in the country, weak with Hebrew, lacking in protekzia.
And when you get that job? Make sure you don’t lose it just as quickly.
I’ve worked as a contractor to high tech businesses for 20 years now. Before that, I worked as an employee. I’ve met every new client by either working on committees in professional organizations or attending their luncheons and talking to people at my table. I’ve also benefited from introductions or referrals from existing clients and from jibber jabbing with people at the gym, etc. E-mail has proven highly effective in relationship building, but not so much in actual project/contract securing. I suggest adding Skype to the facebook/twitter mix for that “in-person” connection to geographically distinct prospects. I do think social media will supplement in-person contact building. It could even stand on its own. However, the current decisionmakers for letting contracts are senior people and are not on here yet. Getting them on is a task of its own. I’m working on that here!
I’ve worked as a contractor to high tech businesses for 20 years now. Before that, I worked as an employee. I’ve met every new client by either working on committees in professional organizations or attending their luncheons and talking to people at my table. I’ve also benefited from introductions or referrals from existing clients and from jibber jabbing with people at the gym, etc. E-mail has proven highly effective in relationship building, but not so much in actual project/contract securing. I suggest adding Skype to the facebook/twitter mix for that “in-person” connection to geographically distinct prospects. I do think social media will supplement in-person contact building. It could even stand on its own. However, the current decisionmakers for letting contracts are senior people and are not on here yet. Getting them on is a task of its own. I’m working on that here!
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