Top 6 Tips to Use Pinterest In Your Job Search

If you’re anything like me you can spend hours browsing Pins and Boards filled with hair ideas, work outfits, home décor or yummy recipes. And as fun as that is, I’ve found time can be much better spent proactively pursuing your job search on Pinterest. The social networking site can, and should, be used in the job hunt for your dream career, as it will be found by recruiters looking into your social resume. And while Pinterest is still heavily women (70%), men are joining the Pin party, too!

Below are the top six tips I’ve found to help you build your personal brand and create a stellar, eye-catching social resume on Pinterest.

1. Upload a Professional Photo
As with all other social networks, make sure you have a professional profile photo. This generates interest in you and your personal brand.

2. Have A Descriptive Bio
Load your bio with keywords for search engine optimization; i.e. you’ll rank high in Google results. You can use the | symbol to organize your information as mentioned in the Twitter and LinkedIn job search blog posts. For instance, your bio might read: Journalist| Writing Tutor |SF Giants Fan.

3. Create Boards
First, write a specific title. For example, “[Your Name] Blog Posts” or “[Your Name] Advertising Portfolio” or “Professional Work Fashion.” Then start pinning. You can include things that interest you and are relevant to your board titles. One idea for a board is a visual resume (Example title: “[Your Name] Public Relations Resume”). Pinterest is a great way to showcase visuals, and visual aids help job seekers stand out to hiring managers. You can include logos from companies where you’ve worked, pictures of events you helped plan and links to articles that you wrote or were quoted in.

4. Create Pins
I say “create pins” because you can’t just repin everything you read and be successful. Pin blog posts you’ve written, or anything you’ve contributed to and write specific, action oriented descriptions for your pins. Organize each pin you post to your boards. Then you can add filler with shared pins to some of your boards (i.e. maybe a “Professional Attire” board where you share some of your favorite work outfits, and share others’ as well. Always make sure your pins look superb to increase interest Find images that best represent what you’re talking about and even add copy on to the picture so users don’t even need to read the description, if they don’t want to.

5. Engage With Other Pinners

Follow boards that interest you. Like and comment on others’ pins. People love those who share their content and will likely return the favor and repin your pins or follow your boards. Remember, always say thank you and give credit where credit is due!

6. Promote Your Pins and Boards

Include a link to your Pinterest resume on your Facebook and Twitter bios, LinkedIn, personal website and business cards to get attention from hiring recruiters. Consider using keywords in descriptions to help optimize your pins for search. However, do not use hashtags on Pinterest! You don’t need them for the site’s search functions. Read more about tips to promote your pins in this fantastic infographic on how to use Pinterest correctly.

What do you think? Do you have any other tips on how to use Pinterest in the job search? Comment below!

*This is part of my blog series on using social networks to help your job search. If you have a network you would like included in the series, please let me know by commenting below!*

Facebook Graph Search and your Job Search

If you’re anything like me, the word graph makes you cringe. Your brain recalls the tedious process of graphing points on an axis, drawing a straight line and finding the slope. Some graphs are your friend though, and Facebook’s new Graph Search, soon to be used by all hiring managers,  is definitely one of those.

What is Graph Search?

Graph Search has started rolling out to users, and the graph data comes from Facebook users’ profile information. Using key search terms, recruiters can now dial in for graphic designers, in a certain city, who like coffee, the San Francisco Giants and have read three specific books…WOW! This makes Facebook much more useful in the job search, but also makes it important for jobseekers to make their pages the best representation of their personal brand. The information that you have in your about section, pages you’ve liked and any TV shows, movies, books, etc., you have listed are all game for Graph Search.

Here are three tips to help you promote your personal brand and hirability on Facebook.

1. Use a Vanity URL

Choose your name as your vanity URL. For instance, your URL should be facebook.com/firstnamelastname. Or, if you use your middle name or initial (like me), include that in your URL. This makes it easier for hiring recruiters to find you, which keeps them happy. Facebook only lets you change this once, so pick a good one!

2. Complete Your Profile

It is important that you fill out your about section with keywords relevant to your industry and personal brand. For example, you can list every title that describes you such as blogger, journalist or dance instructor. Don’t use cutesy quotes to describe yourself; think of your about section as a branch of your resume, and include any important descriptions of yourself there. You should also fill out all jobs, schools and relationships with those in your network on your profile.

3. Utilize Likes

Like companies, non-profit organizations, public figures, books, and anything that is part of your desired industry, or that reflects your personal brand. Graph Search enables hiring recruiters to not only scope out a candidate’s skills but also to determine whether he or she will fit in with the company culture based on personal likes on Facebook.

What do you think? Have you tried any other Graph Search optimization techniques? Comment below!

Top 5 Resume Tips to Stand Out

While scrolling your Twitter feed, you see an opening at your dream company— whether that is the San Francisco Giants or Disneyland (my two dreams!). Before you frantically email the HR person begging for an interview, take a look at your resume. Take an objective point of view and think: If you were a hiring manager, would you hire yourself?

Here are five tips to make your resume stand out in cluttered inboxes or sky-high stacks of papers.

1. Keep it to One Page

First and foremost, make sure you have a one-page resume. Employers generally throw out a resume that is longer than a page. Only list the positions that you feel showcase your abilities and prove that you are the ideal candidate for the specific position. This means you will probably tailor your resume for every position, and keep the most relevant items to verify your resume is short. You can list additional work-related experience on your LinkedIn profile, website and other networks. You can also utilize columns to make your resume shorter.

2. Design it to be Aesthetically Pleasing

You can use a free design template, buy a template online for around $5 (Google search “resume template”), or even call a friend in graphic design to give your resume an eye-catching scheme that will make it stand out. The goal is to have a neat-looking, unique resume that attracts the hiring manager’s attention. Make sure the layout is easy to follow and the best parts of you stand out on the page!

3. Build in Verbs

Verbs give a powerful voice to your resume. Start phrases that list responsibilities in your professional work-experience category with verbs such as managed, lead or implemented.

4. Quantify by Using Numbers

Emphasis your work-related statistics in your resume. Quantify your achievements. For example: Maybe you managed X number of people or increased a company’s Twitter followers by Y amount. Numbers stand out on the page and PROVE that you are a great manager, multi-tasker, etc., rather than just stating it.

5. The More Eyes, the Better

Think typos don’t matter? 61 percent of surveyed hiring managers will throw out a resume with typos. Don’t trust your own eyes, and after you proof your resume several times, have someone else read it for you. Generally this means more than just a friend. See if your advisor will assess it with you. Advisors are helpful because they also know your strengths and background.  Try not to simply email it, but come in person so you can understand the feedback and contribute to brainstorm better ideas. Listen to your advisor and follow his or her instructions. Remember, these professionals have much more experience than you and know what hiring managers are generally looking for.

BONUS: Try QR Codes!

I’ve heard from many job seekers that their resume has stood out to recruiters because they placed a QR code on their resume that sent recruiters to either their LinkedIn page or a YouTube video of them explaining why they are the best candidate. I love this idea!

What do you think? Have you used any of these tactics? Any others? What works best for you? Comment below!

How To Be A Good Intern

You just landed that coveted internship. Now what? Your journey has just begun. Here are four of my favorite tips to help you put your best foot forward in your internship to successfully navigate the path toward your dream career.

1.  When in Doubt, Ask!

No one expects you to know everything. It’s better to swallow your pride and ask how to do a task now rather than mess up on the assignment later. You can also ask professors, mentors or peers for work-related advice to get an objective opinion, as long as it doesn’t violate your internship company’s privacy policy.

2. Be Responsible

Treat your internship as if it were your dream job. Show your internship supervisor that you do not fit the negative stereotype of a lazy, apathetic student. Always be on time and ready to work hard. If you will be late or absent, call in advance.

3. Be Flexible

Go above and beyond what you were hired to do to leave a lasting positive impression of yourself on your supervisor. Your internship supervisor may ask you to do work that is less-than exciting. Instead of complaining, put a smile on your face and say yes. Your go-getter attitude will pay off when you get that outstanding letter of recommendation.

4. Be Innovative

Think outside of the box. If your tasks are completed for the day and you have time, think of what you can bring to the table to help the company succeed. What is the company lacking that you are equipped to help with? Maybe the company has a Twitter account but doesn’t engage with its followers. See what you can do to help. Creativity goes a long way toward making yourself memorable and hirable.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these?  Do you have any other tips on how to have a successful internship?

Will Resumes Become Obsolete in the Face of Social Media?

Will the word “resume” become a foreign word to future job seekers? Using LinkedIn, job seekers now have a virtual record of experience, projects and recommendations that can be edited and updated with the click of a mouse. And with 98% of recruiters going social to find their new recruits, the resume has a much smaller role in hiring decisions.

Many of these recruiters are shying away from traditional resumes and going social to sites like LinkedIn because social profiles paint the bigger picture of a job seeker’s background. For example, LinkedIn provides wider descriptions of job seekers’ in-depth background, specific posts and content, recommendations, specific skills and expertise, a full biography, test scores, publications, organizations the candidate belongs to and more (as long as the job seeker in question has fully utilized their profile!).

Recruiters can also see which groups job seekers belong to and find out how involved they are in their industry. All of this gives the recruiter an in-depth view of the job seeker and how he or she could be essential to the company, much of which is simply not available on a resume.

My personal opinion: I don’t think resumes will become extinct in the near future, as many HR departments like to have a paper trail, and having some kind of handout to give potential employers at career fairs, etc., is essential. However, the face of resumes will change (and are already changing ) drastically in the coming years.

What do you think? Will resumes ever become obsolete?

Why You Need to Use Overused Terms on Your Resume

I’ve been reading a lot about (and in fact tweeted about) overused terms on resumes. It seems to be a big topic, and many applicants want to stand out from the crowd by finding new terms. I hate to break it to you, but you’re almost always going to have to use those old, tired terms. Why? Because recruiters use them in job descriptions.

By now you should know that many recruiters narrow down applicants by using software to search for key terms in resumes. If they are using these key terms in the description, it’s a good bet they’re using them in their keyword searches as well. Plus, many career coaches will tell you to reuse terms the recruiter has used in the description to make your resume fit as closely to what they are looking for as possible.

Until recruiters get fresh terms and more interesting descriptions, unfortunately, it seems you may have to use those same overused terms over and over again as well!

What do you think? Should you shy away from those terms even if the job description lists them?

Twitter Vine and the Job Search

Twitter Vine has been met with a lot of criticism (most recently the app changed it’s rating to 17+ due to inappropriate content), but there is definitely an untapped potential to make a splash in your job search with it. At it’s simplest, Vine is an app where you can share 6-second videos, shot right on your iPhone. Brands have embraced this app, and even the porn industry wants in (ergo age restriction!)

Yet to be seen, however, is anyone using it to market themselves to potential employers. Job seekers should utilize this new app as a new, fun and easy way to stand out and show how innovative they are. Two ways I can think of:

1. Try taking shots of you doing things related to your job, or images of how many followers you have on Twitter, YouTube, etc., or shots of you volunteering, or images of you on the news, or anything else pasted together into a quick slideshow-type video.
2. Or take 6 seconds to quickly say, “Hi, I’m Joe Smith and I want to work for you, [company]. You should hire me because I can help your campany do [some specific thing that company would be excited about].

Or a myriad of other creative ideas!

This is a wonderful way to capture someone’s attention. Honestly, who doesn’t have 6 seconds in their busy day? I love this so much more than video resumes (which can be much too wordy, long and boring).

I would love to hear if anyone else has tried using Twitter Vine for their personal networking or the job search. Anyone have an example? Or a different idea?