Instead of chasing them, make them come to you.
An important element of your job search is standing out from other candidates. One way to stand out is to create as many opportunities as possible for others to
learn about your interests and skills,
appreciate your clarity of thought, communication, and unique style,
and ultimately realize why it would be awesome to interview you and have you join their team!
Here is a repeatable process that you can use to stand out and try to attract the attention of employers using social media:
Pick a subject.
It can be anything that you find interesting. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can even be something that you just learned about in your classes!
Capture your target audience.
Write a very short piece of content (e.g. a LinkedIn post) that very briefly explains:
What the subject is and why you find it interesting.
What you know about it.
What the reader can do to learn more about this subject (call to action).
Read about how people like Justin Welsh apply this thinking and writing process: My Writing Process for 162.597M+ Impressions On LinkedIn. | Justin Welsh
You can take writing frameworks like the one used by Justin Welsh and adapt them to your own goal: capturing the attention of employers!
Demonstrate your thinking and writing skills.
Write a longer piece of content (e.g. a Medium article that can be read in 5 minutes or less) in which you share more details about this subject.
You should add a link to this longer piece of content as part of your call to action in your LinkedIn post (e.g. include at the end of your LinkedIn post a sentence like “If you are curious about this topic and want to learn more, take a look at my Medium article: {{link}}.”).
Hit the publish button!
Time to publish your content.
Optional, but recommended: demonstrate your knowledge and your ability to teach what you know to others.
Create video content (e.g. a 10 minute YouTube video) where you teach others about this subject.
If someone goes as far as watching and engaging with your video content, it’s likely that they will want to talk with you and see if you can help them solve their problems (i.e., employment!).
Rinse and repeat.
Do it again for another topic. Then do it again. And again. And again…
Think of yourself as a business: you are building a funnel to get customers. Your customers just happen to be those people who are in a position to make hiring decisions (e.g. recruiters, hiring managers, etc.).
Instead of chasing them, make them come to you.
