Job Recruiters Are Turning to Twitter

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We’ve written before that employers spend only about six seconds initially considering a resume. Coincidentally, that’s how long a video on Twitter’s Vine service is.

Hiring managers are increasingly looking at such videos and tweets to find candidates, The Wall Street Journal reports. The founder of a human resources research firm told the newspaper, “Companies see its potential and they know that over time it’ll get more sophisticated.”

In February, a Boston company tried recruiting for a marketing position using nothing but Twitter. People applied using the hashtag (like a keyword) #socialCV and had to have 1,000 followers (like Facebook “friends”) for consideration. The hiring manager says he liked the process so much, he’s going to abandon the traditional route altogether.

That might be a little extreme for some recruiters. Consulting firm CareerXroads surveyed 37 big U.S. companies and found none using Twitter much for either posting jobs or finding candidates. But the same survey said many intended to try it out at some point.

Twitter encourages it, and in the past has held a job-search chat on its platform. Its Vine video service, introduced in January, has already led to work for some. Belgian ad agency DDB Brussels is currently recruiting through Vine, AdWeek reports.

While a tweet or a video isn’t likely to secure a job for most people, it might at least get a recruiter’s attention, and maybe an interview. The WSJ recommends following on Twitter companies and individual managers you want to work with, and engaging them. It also says not to worry too much about mixing personal and professional, but to keep it clean.

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