How to find jobs on Twitter
Looking for a new job? Once upon a time you needed to buy a newspaper, flick through to the Employment section and scan the job advertisements to find roles that you were interested in applying for. Fast forward to 2020 and the way you look for work has changed completely.
For quite some time now, employers and recruitment agencies have been using online job boards to
Employers, recruitment agencies and head hunters now use social media channels to advertise roles and attract talent.
Twitter is one such platform.
Now more than ever, you need to expand the way you look for work and Twitter may just be the social platform that is a winner for you in the job hunting market.
Isn’t Twitter just for memes and negative public debate?
With over 330 million monthly active users and a whopping 145 million daily active users (Twitter – 2019), Twitter is a ridiculously popular social media platform. It is often perceived as the place where people from all walks of life come together online to agree, disagree and debate everything from memes to pressing world events.
And the 330 million users referenced here are only those users who have an account. Some 500 million other people access Twitter every month without logging into an account (Twitter – 2019). Talk about enormous reach!
Twitter’s user demographic is more mature than those who use apps like Snapchat and Instagram, making it a popular audience for professionals. So, it is not surprising that there is a growing trend for employers, recruitment agencies and even employees to use Twitter as a channel to advertise job vacancies.
How Twitter ticks (or tweets – excuse the pun!)
To learn more about job opportunities on Twitter, you need to learn a little about what makes this social media channel tick.
Twitter is used as an online social networking tool where users can post short updates of 280 characters or less. These posts are called “tweets”. Tweets often relate to what is going on in people’s lives, along with things people think are funny, interesting or useful to others.
Generally speaking, tweets show up in your feed in the order they happen. That means, that at the top of your Twitter feed, you will see the most recent tweets. The older the tweet, the further down your Twitter feed it will appear.
Tweets can contain text, links, photos, GIFs or videos. Tweets are best received when they are short and sweet. If what you want to say takes more than 280 words, you can create a thread which is a group of tweets that you create one after another.
Rather than “friending” people on Twitter as you might do on Facebook, you “follow” people on Twitter.
Hashtags are the mechanism used on Twitter to indicate the subject or nature of the tweet. The most popular hashtags show up on the left side of the “Home” tab. Hashtags are clickable. Simply tap on a hashtag to see all the tweets related to that topic.
Now you have a better sense for how Twitter works, let’s see how it’s useful as a job hunting tool.
Finding jobs on Twitter
You don’t have to have a Twitter account of your own to find jobs on Twitter. You can simply search for key hashtags via the search bar to find jobs that might interest you.
There are a few different ways you can find jobs on Twitter. Here’s a few popular ways:
Hashtag Heroes
As mentioned above, hashtags form a huge part of the Twitterverse.
There are a range of hashtags you can search for on Twitter to uncover job opportunities. One common hashtag people use is their home state or city.
For example, if I was looking for work in Melbourne, Australia, I would use the hashtag #melbourne and look through all Twitter comments that include that hashtag to find jobs on Twitter that might interest me.
Of course, trawling through tweets takes time. But given tweets are short, you can easily scan through recent tweets fairly quickly.
Other hashtags you can enter into the search field of Twitter, that could lead you to jobs include:
#openjob
#jobopportunity
#applynow
#jobsearch
#jobhunt
#hiring
#nowhiring
#job
#work
#jobs
#career
#careers
#employment
#HR
#humanresources
#tweetmyjobs
#[industry]jobs
#techjobs
#joblisting
#[companyname]jobs”
#[typeofjob] eg Marketing, Sales, ProjectManager
#[worktype] eg freelancer, casualjob, parttimejob
#graduatejobs
#jobvacancy
Tools to help you find jobs on Twitter
There are many tools on the market to help you find your dream job on Twitter.
One such tool is called Hashtagify. Hashtagify is a free tool that job seekers can use to find the best hashtags to use on Twitter to uncover work opportunities.
Whilst Hashtagify was originally developed for hashtag marketing, it is an excellent tool for job seekers as well.
Basically, you are able to use Hashtagify to search for a specific Twitter hashtag and it:
- Communicates how popular that search term is including recent trends of its use
- Offers related hashtags
- Outlines spelling variants for that hashtag
- Shows examples of tweets that include that hashtag
- Allows you to check out the top Twitter influencers who use that hashtag
What an amazing free tool to have at your disposal.
Follow companies you’d love to work with one day
Following specific companies on Twitter is another way to find jobs on Twitter. Note down the companies you would LOVE to work with in the future.
Find those company accounts on Twitter and follow them. This will help you stay across any open roles as they become available.
For example, let’s say you are a Digital Designer and one day you would love to work for Google or Atlassian. By following Google and Atlassian, you will see the tweets that the company releases. Those tweets will show up in your home timeline whenever you log in to Twitter. This includes roles that they advertise via Twitter. This saves you from having to scour digital job boards, wasting precious job hunting time.
Handy reference: For up to date information on how to follow companies and other people on Twitter, click here
You might see that some companies have separate Twitter accounts set up specifically to feature jobs and what it’s like to work at their company. For example, Dell Technologies has a Twitter account called Life at Dell with the handle @CareersatDell. This account releases new jobs at the company.
Spend some time seeking out accounts like this for companies in your chosen field.
Follow key people leaders in companies you’d love to work with
In addition to following company Twitter accounts, you can also follow individuals who work for those companies. It makes sense to follow key Hiring Managers (if you know their names) as well as HR, Recruitment and Talent Acquisition and other people leaders within those companies.
These people who are most likely to tweet about open roles within their companies.
If you work for a large company, it makes sense to follow people leaders in the company too. This will allow you to hear about internal transfer and promotion opportunities.
Remember, not all companies and individuals have a Twitter presence. Have a look at specific accounts before you follow them to make sure that they are active accounts with regular tweets. If you find that the Twitter accounts are not very active (or don’t exist at all), investigate other social media accounts where users might be more active.
Not all companies use Twitter extensively – that doesn’t mean they don’t have opportunities to share. It just means they are not sharing those opportunities on Twitter.
Follow others in your professional network
Social media platforms are created so that virtual communities can come together to share content of all types. Twitter is no different.
Take the time to sit down and brainstorm who is in your professional network. Make a list. You could include:
- Past employers, line managers and support staff
- Your current employer, workmates, support staff, line managers etc
- Community group contacts including sporting groups, special interest organisations etc
Have a look to see if any of the people you have listed have Twitter accounts and scan to see the sort of content they post. If they tend to use the account purely for personal use, rather than for professional purposes, then think twice about following them.
However, if those people on your list seem to use their Twitter account in more of a professional context, do consider following them. They may well post job vacancies within their own companies from time to time. This will give you access to role opportunities that might not be advertised in the public domain or on job boards.
Follow recruitment agency and head hunter Twitter accounts
Take some time to research the most reputable recruitment companies and head hunters in your state, city or neighbourhood. Find companies that you can see offer the type of work you are looking for.
For example, let’s say you are looking for a bar tending job. Use an online search engine to find local hospitality focused recruitment agencies and make a list of those you find. Then head to Twitter and follow those companies. They are likely to tweet when new jobs become available.
Alternatively, if you are a senior marketing professional, looking for work with top tier companies, you will want to follow head hunting companies on Twitter that specialise in Marketing roles.
To learn more about the most reputable recruitment agencies and head hunters in your region, use your search engine of choice and speak with trusted people in your network about which companies they have successfully worked with in the past. Follow those companies accordingly.
Table 1 below summarises the many ways you can use Twitter to find jobs.
Table 1: How to find jobs on Twitter
Building your Twitter presence
Now if you would like to take things one step further, you can build your own professional profile on Twitter. You can do this by setting up an account and starting to tweet content that enhances your digital footprint.
The key here is to use your Twitter account for professional rather than personal purposes.
Tweet about key issues in your sector, share the content of key influencers and contribute to online conversations about anything that matters to your role type or sector.
If you have never used Twitter before, then be open to some experimentation when you first start using it. If you know other people who use Twitter in a professional context, ask who they follow and what they find useful about the channel. Mirror their efforts.
When you are posting content on Twitter, prospective employers are most likely looking for:
- An idea of whether you would be a good fit for them culturally
- Researching you to learn more about you – are you articulate and open minded or are you argumentative and rude?
- Does the content in your tweets support the education, experience and previous job history match what you have listed in your resume?
- If you work in a creative sector, do your tweets support that? Do you attend events that support your profession? If you are in a technology or digital space, do you use the latest networking tools and tech to connect with others in the sector?
- Researching if you use any inappropriate online behaviour on Twitter – reference to illegal drug use, wasting time whilst on the job, heavy drinking leading to inappropriate behaviours, inappropriate sexual references, profanity, poor spelling and punctuation etc
This post has focused on how to use Twitter to find a job. Of course there are other reasons you should consider using Twitter as part of your personal branding strategy. Your Twitter account when used effectively helps you to build a positive digital footprint.
Other key ways to build your profile on Twitter include:
- Follow people who use hashtags relevant to your industry so you can network with them, read and respond to their content and reshare their tweets when it makes sense to do so
- Get career advice from career coaches and experts so you can build the career of your dreams
- Stay informed about key industry trends and issues by connecting with other professionals in your network and follow their tweets over time
Related Reading
Using Twitter for job search and profile building
Building your online professional profile – Just start!
Will an employer check my social media accounts before hiring
How to use Twitter: Critical tips for new users