It seems that for every new person using Twitter, there’s another new tool to let people use it. For searching for jobs on Twitter, we’ll be looking at the 5 top sites to search for jobs on Twitter.
But first and in case you haven’t noticed, there’s been lots of talk about using Twitter to find your next job:
- Tweet Your Way to a New Job – or Not? – About.com
- A New Job Just a Tweet Away – The Wall Street Journal
- 20 tips to Twitter job search success – JobMob
- Searching for Jobs on Twitter- Can Twitter help you get a job? – Southwest CEO
- Twitter in the Job Search? – JibberJobber
- Everyone’s slingin’ hash(jobs) on Twitter – Cheezhead
Before we get to the job seeker tools that exist for job searching on Twitter, let’s briefly illustrate the current problems that are inherent in using Twitter to find a job (and trying to be brief and not rehash the issue that some people have with the whole Twitter+jobs=hired concept:
- All information on Twitter is limited to 140 characters, which isn’t much space to fit a link, title, location, company name & brief description. This sentence, for example, is 192 characters.
- To make links shorter, tweets using URL shorteners to condense long urls (like http://jobsearchwebsite.com/location/job-title.html) to something shorter (like http://tr.im/asd123). The problem with this is that you don’t really know where a link is going to take you.
- Since there’s no universal standard for marking a tweet as being for a job listing (many people append #job to a tweet), there’s no way to make sure that a search will include all job openings on Twitter. Likewise, there’s no way to guarantee that everything with a #job is a job listing.
- Most job searches have 2 factors – keywords and locations. Because tweets are mostly keyword-focused, its very spotty to search Twitter for job openings in a certain area.
- Tweets are all micro blog-posts. So, unlike a typical job posting, there’s no expiration/closing date mentioned – or attached – to a job posting. So the only way to see if a tweeted job is still open is to click the link(s), which can be exhausting to say the least.
So like every job search tool that we’ll review, none of these should be a job seeker’s only resource. But they can be a valuable part of a job seeker’s toolkit and help find some opportunities that might not be so obvious in other places. And even in the relatively short time that Twitter has been around, some Twitter-related job search sites have already gone belly up (like HashJobs.com). We’ll only be glancing at the websites that appear to still be actively maintained and improved.
(Roughly in order of best to worst)
Pros:
- LinkedIn integration
- Offers a public forum to discuss bugs & desired features
- Lets visitors browse for jobs by company
- Segments tweets into 30 categories and 117 geographic regions
- Great keyword and location-based searching
- Ability to refer a friend to any desired tweet
- Email & SMS alert services
- Jobseekers can flag tweets as spam
Cons:
- Many of the listings, once clicked, show that they’re no longer available
- Listings quickly get clogged by a single source
Verdict: There’s a good reason that PCMag listed this as one of the web’s top 20 job sites. For anyone wanting to search for a job on Twitter, this site is a must!
Pros:
- Many search options (make sure you use their Advanced Search, and know how to use search operators)
- Allows limiting tweets by date range
- No advertisments & clean interface
- Includes all tweets, everyone gets equal attention
Cons:
- Location based searching is very limited
- No mechanisms to filter out duplicate postings
- Very limited vetting process to guarantee postings are from legitimate employers
Verdict: There’s nothing like going straight to the source. When job searching on Twitter, don’t overlook this basic tool.
Pros:
- Neat new Job Map tool
- Offers a public forum to let visitors discuss bugs and desired features
- Results can be narrowed by job type or salary
- Awesome ability to filter out listings from overzealous tweeters (who typically turn out to be spammers)
- Results can be delivered via RSS
- Ability to bookmark preferred tweets when logged in
- “I Can Do This” feature, though I can’t find any section that explains how this works
Cons:
- Offered search capability returns incorrect results
- Results are very cluttered and can be a bit exhausting on the eye
- No apparent way to view the original tweet of a posted job
- Continuous search results mechanism prevents visitor from scrolling to the bottom of the page
- Only 25% of other sites number of tweets, though still heavily saturated with job board spam
Verdict: Has potential, but offers nothing that you wouldn’t find on the above services.
Pros:
- Search functionality that includes keyword and (limited) location
- Tweets are grouped together based on location in major metros
- Tweets are automatically analyzed into different categories
Cons:
- Very heavy integration with Google Ads
- Results are clunky and poorly displayed
- Search logic appears to rely purely on what Twitter offers without any server-side improvements (e.g. it doesn’t translate 12345 into Hersey, PA)
Verdict: Nothing you’ll find here that you won’t find on other sites.
Pros:
- Segments listings in Design, Programming and Other categories
Cons:
- No search functionality of any kind
- Updates are few and far between. On second thought, this service may have been abandoned…
Verdict: Nothing to see here. Move along…
In the end, Twitter is still more about networking and finding resources than being a replacement for using job boards, job search engines, and company websites. If you’re in an ultra-niche position and looking for work regardless of geographic location, you might find what you’re looking for on Twitter; otherwise, be cautious on how much of your job search time you’re investing in this region.
