*Other factors and work experience contributed to ultimately getting hired, but the tweet got me noticed.
Guest Post by Jenny Weigle
When you find a job opportunity you’re truly excited about, it’s almost like the butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling on a first date. You’re hoping to impress somebody and that they’ll want to see you again, or in this case, hire you. That’s how I felt in October 2010. I was looking for a job in social media marketing or communications. At the time, I was lucky to find a number of these openings and had even lined up some interviews. A friend of mine emailed me a link to the listing for social media manager at CareerBuilder, and the butterflies grew as I read each bullet point in the description. “I can do all of this!” I said aloud in my apartment (alone).
Immediately, I started to work on my cover letter, which was my least favorite part of being a job seeker. My cover letters had never been my strong suit. I knew I needed an intro that would truly stand out. I decided to hold off on writing the intro and focus on the rest of the letter, discussing why I was qualified for the position and what I could bring to the table. In a few short hours, after many revisions, the letter was complete, minus the intro.
Since I wanted to work in social media, I considered that perhaps posting about my excitement on social media would work to my advantage. Or would that be considered tacky? Is it even appropriate to tweet about a job you’re applying for? Would the hiring manager even see it? And if so, would he/she be impressed or annoyed? I decided to go for it anyway. I posted the tweet below:
Then, I suddenly had a brilliant idea for the intro to my cover letter:
Dear Hiring Manager,
When my friend emailed me a link to the job description for Social Media Manager, I was so excited to read over it that I immediately tweeted “I have found the PERFECT job opportunity! Oh @CareerBuilder, I hope you like my resume and cover letter! #HopingtoImpressHiringManager.” As someone with a great passion for all-things-digital, I believe I would be an excellent candidate for this opportunity and could execute a brilliant social media strategy for CareerBuilder across multiple platforms and audiences.
I reviewed the cover letter and resume one last time and then submitted it to CareerBuilder. Less than two hours later, I received a tweet from the hiring manager:
The next morning, I had an email from the hiring manager, asking to set up a phone interview. After two more in-person interviews, I was offered my dream job! The most interesting aspect of all of this is that I didn’t even think to tweet about any of the other social media jobs I was interviewing for. (I guess none of them excited me in the way this one did.)
Lessons learned from this experience:
- Don’t be afraid to connect with an employer’s public social media accounts (or send them a tweet)! Facebook and LinkedIn may be a bit too personal to connect on, but Twitter and Google+ would be fine.
- Find a way to make your cover letter stand out from others.
- Don’t rely on social media alone. I still had to make a good impression – in person – at every interview that followed.
- Social media rocks.
Jenny Weigle is the social media manager for CareerBuilder. She shares her job seeker tips and social media marketing advice on Twitter and Google+.
