Generate Opportunities

Using Twitter to showcase your work and win opportunities means you’re not in competition with other candidates through a traditional hiring process. On the contrary, you can get people competing for you.

Broadcast Your Skills

Instead of applying to jobs, broadcast your skills in a creative way that compels people to share and state that you’re looking for a new role. This method isn’t ideal if you’re not comfortable with informing your current job that you’re on the job hunt. However, it can make a lot of sense if you’re a recent graduate or are in-between jobs.

Here are two great examples of this practice:

• Francine Tamakloe built a website and marketing campaign to apply to the AMP Development Program at Spotify in 2017. Her tweet garnered over 2K RTs and 5,700 likes and landed her the role.

• Alyssa X announced she was looking for a role on Twitter by posting about her skills and showcasing them in an eye-catching video trailer that further highlighted her capabilities, resulting in 389 RTs and over 2K likes. Responses were filled with potential places that were hiring and interested in potentially hiring her, including highly competitive companies like Adobe and Amazon.

Turn Praise Into Offers

Posting is powerful because it can draw eyes to your work that lead to opportunities you can create yourself. One such example is receiving praise from people in positions to hire you for roles or projects (Head of Product Development, Technical Lead, Founder, et cetera).

If something you post about garners positive feedback from someone in this category at somewhere you’d like to work, leverage the opportunity. Send them a DM, thank them, and note that you’re looking to switch jobs or take on a contract opportunity related to what they complimented you on. Tailor your pitch carefully to their company and be specific on how you can help them. While they may not be interested, they may keep you top of mind or refer you to someone else.

Use Hashtags

Using community-specific hashtags can be a good way to amplify the fact that you’re looking for opportunities in your field.

• Valerie Phoenix (@DigitalBlkHippy) used #BlackTechTwitter and #BlackTechPipeline, both frequently used by Black technologists to share opportunities, when she was searching for a new role.

• Deb Lee (@jdebbiel) used #visdev and #portfolioday, common “Design Twitter” hashtags, when searching for freelance work on Twitter.

When tweets use these hashtags, it’s implied that a retweet would be appreciated, if not stated outright. This increases the visibility of the tweet, thereby increasing the chance of someone in a hiring role noticing. Retweeting these posts is a nice thing to do and a simple way to help members of your individual community on Twitter.

Responding to Offers

Twitter is a place where people can be extremely generous with their time and money, often just to pay it forward—at some point, someone helped them. Here are a few examples of opportunities offered on Twitter:

• Stephanie Hurlburt office hours: Frequently asked for advice about the tech industry, Stephanie decided to lend more personal help through video call office hours.

• Clair Byrd job search/resume review help: As a hiring manager with years of experience, Clair offered “women or underrepresented gender folks” help getting jobs in tech through mock interviews, resume reviews, and job search coaching.

• Joel Gascoigne coffee with early stage founders: While visiting NYC, Joel offered to meet with early stage founders to provide advice.

• Len Markidan marketing application reviews: Having reviewed thousands of marketing job applications, Len offered to help review applications and provide free feedback.

If someone you trust and admire offers an opportunity to learn more from them, take it! This kind of engagement is one of the happiest things Twitter can facilitate.

​caution​ While you don’t want to be overly skeptical of what people offer on Twitter, don’t jump right in when something flashy comes alongL not everyone’s “opportunity” is legit as those just listed. It’s best practice to be cognizant of offers that seem too good to be true; Twitter has become inundated with scams like fake job offers and free bitcoin giveaways. Not everyone has others’ best interests at heart, and it’s crucial to use common sense and critical thinking to separate gifters from grifters.