On Monday after our weekly chat I announced that I was in the job market actively seeking work starting next month, making it public through my Twitter account as well as @JobAdviceSA (using the hashtag #HireTim) and my updated LinkedIn profile.
Since then I have been inundated with direct messages and tweets, LinkedIn inbox messages and emails from recruiters and members of the #JobAdviceSA community looking to help. I have also approached my own contacts for assistance and companies for which I am interested in working. As a result I have set up four interviews/meetings to discuss work and am waiting for a response from four companies to whom I have sent my CV. This is all without responding to any adverts posted on job websites, LinkedIn or other social networks (though I have shortlisted several jobs to apply to a later date).
Whilst I am still waiting for a concrete job offer, I think the response I have had so far shows that before applying for jobs that you see advertised you can use your contacts, family, friends and social media connections and communities to find opportunities that are not necessarily made public. In fact none of the openings that I have been contacted about or sent my CV for, or arranged meetings to discuss, have been advertised online.
I would like to make it clear that #HireTim is not some experiment I am conducting to research the effectiveness of finding jobs using social networks, or for the purposes of writing articles such as this to assist the #JobAdviceSA community. I am genuinely seeking work for next year which will enable me to continue running #JobAdviceSA and helping the many, mainly unemployed, jobseekers who follow @JobAdviceSA and take part in our weekly chat to ask questions and get advice about finding a job. If my (hopefully successful) story can educate and inspire other jobseekers to use different, more effective methods of looking for job opportunities, all the better.
So I’m asking for your help again to keep sending me direct and inbox messages about job opportunities, sharing my articles and tweeting #HireTim until I find work for 2017!
