Social networking has taken a huge leap forward.  No longer are we dealing with seemingly static pages like LinkedIn and any job searching site, but we now have a newer and brighter tool – a miniature chat room in our face – Twitter.  News rooms are already adapting live streaming into their broadcasting.  Live stream of what your friends are doing just went live on Facebook.  It looks like this live-streaming concept is really catching on.

If you haven’t seen Twitter yet, I highly recommend you visit http://twitter.com and tinker around.  You’re sure to find it engaging to follow people with similar interests as yourself, which is exactly what got me into it.

I was in the depth of my job search when I joined Twitter; my goal was to make myself visible beyond Dice, LinkedIn, Facebook and my blog/portfolio (Monster and Career Builder were useless).  I was trying to open as many platforms as I could, knowing that it was going to be a rough ride to find a job due to a.) the economic slump, and b.) wanting to get out of Kansas. The direct nature of Twitter makes networking much easier to accomplish.

One day I saw a random tweet from an individual claiming that they LOVED their work at Six Apart in San Francisco. I was familiar with the company from my career research on them in the past.  Jokingly (but seriously), I sent out this tweet:

Not long after I sent that message I received a few DMs from another follower in my network.

Later that night I also got a DM from the individual that I initially sent my tweet to, asking for my resume.

I jumped on the IMD website and began looking at the careers page.  The follower from my network and I passed a few e-mails between each other.  He gave me some more information about IMD, like what they do and what kind of work he has done there.  Needless to say I was hooked and I sent out my resume for him to pass along.

After several conversations with IMD’s recruiter, a phone interview with one of the production engineers and an on-site interview with 4 members of the team, I was contacted on March 6th with a formal offer.  I announced my epic win to the follower who helped me and he threw this back:

and…

“I just got you in the door.” With that I was able to take advantage of the opportunity provided this time.

This train is moving, and without a doubt it helped me get to the next level of my life.  Through the last 6 months of job searching, I did not find one individual that was in my network that did not try and get me employed when they saw I needed help, but those positions didn’t match up as well as this most recent.  People are generous and they want to help, but they can’t help if they don’t know you are there and in need.

These doors are all over the place if you are willing to search for them and to use them.

Take this for example. I just recently found a new Twitter page called Job Angles (http://twitter.com/jobangels) that I was going to abuse if this opportunity fell through.  Their purpose is to find people who are searching for jobs or people who are aiding others in their job search, and to make them visible to the 3000+ followers. A grass roots movement!

So challenge yourself and say hello to a random person on Twitter, or graciously lurk around and make yourself visible by presenting your thoughts like I did.  Regardless, Twitter is a powerful median to express yourself and to easily be found by others. Take advantage of it.