Tag Archives: Twitter

Being Creative in a Tough Market

February 10, 2010   Jamie Savage   No comments

It’s a tough market for jobs. No prizes there. If you are as unfortunate as to be out of work at the present time, differentiation is the key. This can’t be stressed enough. As well as the usual advice you’ll be given (knock on as many doors as possible, follow up all contact, keep yourself busy and in good shape), there are other things you can be doing.

It can’t be stressed how much potential lies in the internet. IT professionals can get outsourced work, people can open ecommerce shops in minutes (eBay) and everyone and the uncle seems to be an “expert” at something or other (“social media guru anyone??!). However, if you are willing to dig deep and work harder than the next person, opportunities will come your way:

Get active on Twitter – e.g. one guy I know there works for a large scientific/healthcare company. This isn’t obvious from the outset, but were I a jobseeker I would get in touch with him and see who he knows, these things quickly snowball. How many examples are there out there of people in the same situation? It must be stressed that sitting on the net isn’t enough, there are lots of various meet-ups going on, from out of work professionals and entrepreneurs to carious networking events. You will only strengthen any relationships built online here.

Build an impressive LinkedIn profile – OK, so you may not have a huge amount of experience, but at least sell what you do have to the utmost of your abilities. Get in involved with groups (even start your own if you see a niche) and discussions.

Get in touch with old colleagues / classmates – many are working in other roles and pursuing other opportunities, they all have new and diverse networks. It may not be easy or come naturally to you, but ask for help and leads, people are generally very willing to help out where possible.

Learn new stuff – you mightn’t have the resources to do new courses. No problem, again there are almost endless resources on the net. Learn html; build websites, graphic design, whatever you’re interested in. You can find it here. And you can find hundreds of people with the exact same interest who will help you along the way. As the Bible says “Just as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above and other ideas you have

-Brian (bhc at lifescience.ie)

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Managing your web footprint

September 02, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

Now the following is mostly applicable to jobseekers, but most if not all of us will be jobseekers in the future, this applies to us all. With people spending more and more time on the internet, footprints are left. Most of these are deliberate, what’s important is that your footprint represents who you are, or at least for the purpose of the interview, who you want to be portrayed as!

LinkedIn: can be a hugely powerful tool, I have heard of numerous people who have secured roles wither directly or indorectly here. So fill it in like your CV, with almost the same amount of detail and using the same degree of care here. Use the settings to subtley suggest that you might be on the look out for a role (if you are). You can do this by saying you’re interested in “Career Opportunities” and “Job Inquiries”.

Faceoook: OK we know we all like to view drunken pictures of our friends, but if you are on the job hunt, your safest bet is to assume any potential employers will be looking here. Because more and more are! To do this you hjave 2 options: Lock your account to your friends only or make sure any pics tagged of you are “PG”! That’s it. As Facebook is becoming more and more searchable, instances of people being refused roles due to the impression they give on Facebook will only rise, guaranteed. Don’t let this happen to you.

Bebo: Many people in the 25-35 bracket seem to be straying away from Bebo, I would recommend that same.

Blogs / Twitter: These can be extremely useful tools to enhance your CV. If you are an expert on a subject, or merely have an interest and you have the time / inclinati0on to write about it, then do. Then reference the blog in your CV, and if potential employers see that you’re a knoewledgable and professional person, this can only enhance your application and distinguish you from your peers. The same applies to Twitter, keep things consistent, interesting and relevant.

Google: Google yourself and make sure any hits related to you are the ones you would like other to see.

While we’re on the subject, we have presences on all of the above, so add / link / keep in touch with us!

Facebook Also our colleagues at Sales and Marketing.ie

My LinkedIn profile. And our Life Science Recruitment company profile

Life Science Recruitment on Twitter, or search for @sciencejobs

And our popular Science Blog

-Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

Note: this post was brought about by one posted by our friend Ivan, here.

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The Web 2.0 Recruitment Era

June 30, 2009   Sinead Cullen   No comments

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, Technorati, MySpace, Social Media…. the list in endless… but what is all the fuss about and how can it find me a job, i hear you ask…

Web 2.0 is simply the catchy term for the next generation of internet technologies. In the same way mobile phones evolved from Analogue (088) to GSM (087) to GPRS the to 3G and HSPDA; from just making a standard call to making a video call, the internet is in a state of flux. A tidal wave of new rich applications are now available, enhancing the internet for the end-user. This has been made possible by the widespread peretration of broadband to the masses, combined with a reduction in the cost of computer hardware.

So how does it increase my chances of getting a job???

Web 2.0 gives you instant access to information; information and knowledge are essential resources in the job search. Twitter is a good case study to use here; instant updates on twitter, affectionately termed “tweets” in the cybersky, allow you to recieve information immediately. Imagine the scenario: Recruitment company A gets a call from Employer B who requests to see a shortlist of candidates for Job C. The job is tweeted immediately and simultaenously sent to the administration dept. for dissemination to the job boards. 5 suitable candidates reply to the Recruitment Company via Twitter before the job is even advertised. The employer recieves these applicants and is happy with the response and asks to see no more applicants. The job doesnt even go up on the job boards, hence you have lost your chance. Some analyst say that 70% of open positions are not advertised on the major job boards.

Web 2.0 facilitates networking. Facebook and LinkedIn are good case studies in this example. Imagine you became a fan of the Life Science Recruitment page on FaceBook. Consultant A sees that you became a fan and checks out your profile and sees that in your professional info (which you obviously have filled out!!!) you work as a QC Analyst. Ten minutes later Consultant A gets a call from Employer B regarding a new QC Analyst vacancy – guess who is fresh in the consultants mind??? Furthermore, finding a good recruitment consultant on LinkedIn and adding the personal touch by sending a message via this medium, makes you stand out…

Web 2.0 increases your exposure in the online world, increased exposure correlates with increased opportunity. One of the most difficult tasks these days is getting recognised. Why ride a bicycle on the information superhighway when you can drive a tank??? The more you put yourself out there, the greater your chances of finding a job. However, a note of caution, be careful with sensitive information such as addresses and date of birth. Don’t put these on your Web 2.0 profiles. A handy tip to avoid spam is to put your email in this format: myname [at] myisp {dot} com, as oppossed to [email protected] - spam email scrapers don’t recognise the former, and many people are savvy to this format.

Blogs can often give you access to ‘off the cuff’ or insider information – this information can often give you an edge over your competitors, as this blog post will probably do!

The secret is not to be afraid of Web 2.0; people in the past were hesitant of DVD’s, Electric Cars and Online Banking – now they are here to stay, and guess what, so is Web 2.0.

– Eamonn (Email: eor [at] lifescience [dot] ie ) jg7baqve9t

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