Out of a Job But Not a Statistic

As of Friday, I was left without a job. The software company I worked for as a Business Development Manager locating top partners and getting them to sell our products had to cut expenses. I was one of those expenses along with a few others in the company.

The LA Times reported that California’s unemployment rate is at a staggering 10%. Even large companies that were seen as golden jobs like at Google had to put people out. In my life, I have never seen it this bad. Granted I’ve only been a part of the workforce for about 20 years with my first job being at a comic book store. Climbing what I thought was a ladder in my career, starting at the bottom of a small software company and over the years graduating to bigger and bigger roles.

Now, I am in the same boat as several thousand other people doing whatever they can to find a job to make ends meet. Even though I am a part of the statistics for my State, I don’t plan on being one for very long. (Famous last words, I know.)

After a day of mourning I pulled my head back on and started focusing on what had to be done. I’ve been out of work before, I know the process but the game has changed. To find a good job in this economy if one exists, you have to be smarter than the average bear. Putting your resume on Monster.com and applying for the same jobs that every Tom, Dick and Harry are, isn’t going to cut it. The game is now a social one and getting a meeting for a job interview has got to be more difficult than having a decent piece of paper explaining your work history and accomplishments.

I’ve been using social media for years building networks both personally and professionally and now it’s time to use social media to find work.

LinkedIn Jobs

You built your network on LinkedIn for a reason. I’ve always been curious if it made sense to have a thousand people in a LinkedIn network but now it makes all the sense in the world. Sure many of the people you have connected with on LinkedIn may be out of work too, but the idea is to get your name out to the ones that are in a position to help you now.

Many recruiters scrape through LinkedIn looking for new profiles and newly updated profiles. Even if you don’t think your LinkedIn profile needs any work, make some changes. Everyone in your network and people with advanced access will see your profile as updated and this is how I have met many recruiters over the years.

Using Twitter to find a job.

Twitter is really one of the most fascinating communication platforms of my generation. First I used it just to follow friends and some interesting people like Robert Scobble and iJustine but I’ve been opened up to an entire world of Tweeps ranging from hard core gamerz to CEOs and Entrepreneurs. Now I am using Twitter to find recruiters.

Running a search in Twitter to find recruiters is one way. You can also look at Twitter Grader for the top recruiters using Twitter.

Using Facebook to find a job.

Facebook has just been a place for me to keep in contact with family and friends. For the most part, I have not gone crazy adding friends to Facebook. But Facebook has some good applications for people looking for a job.

These are only a few of the things I have come across since Friday when I got the news. I am sure there are more like this article by Talent Buzz. If you are a recruiter, add me to Twitter and let’s talk about anything in my area.