PREMISE

As some as you may know, I recently returned to Toronto after a 6 month trip to Australia, working and traveling. I arrived back in town mid-April and immediately was on the job hunt. While my job in Australia had been good for my minimal time working there, it wasn’t wasn’t a job I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found myself stressed out and my soul dying a little bit everyday I walked into that office. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a good position for the time being and the people I worked with were absolutely lovely but it made me realized how important it is for me to have a permanent job I love.

And so with that, I made myself a promise that when I returned to Canada, I would find a job I really loved. My brilliant plan to do so? Harness the power of social media!

We’ve all heard those stories: The ones of the people who got laid off, only to find a job through Twitter within hours. Or the blogger who became so respected, so popular that they got offered the corner office at some high-tech firm. This was what I was going to do!

I was going to build a great website that attracted attention. I was going to blog thought-provoking entries that got discussions going. I was going to appeal to my Twitter friends to get them to ReTweet my skills, abilities and strengths wherein the perfect ad agency with the perfect job needed someone – gasp! – exactly like me! It was going to work out wonderfully. We’d all hold hand in Social Media Land, skip through YouTube Ville, streak past Facebook Corner and end up at the Great Opportunity For Emma Pub.

FINDINGS

So how did my brilliant plan work out, you may ask? Well, glad you asked! (Not really, who likes admitting defeat?) Here’s what I found as I warbled my way through trying to make my less-than-planned plan work:

1. People actually aren’t as willing to help you as you think they will be. Which was really a let-down, to be honest. I expected users I had chatted with on-and-off for months over Twitter or on blogs or heck! even on Facebook, to be a little more willing to go out of their way to help spread my plight.
2. While having a website makes you seem like a little more legit to the online advertising crowd, it really didn’t have as much of an impact as I expected. It’s been live for maybe a month now? And I’m juuuust about to reach 100 visits. Not exactly the explosion of loyal visitors my starry eyes dreamed!
3. The areas I did find it helpful to use to its full extent were the Workopolis.com and Monster.ca resume uploaders. While not exactly “social media” in the definition we think of it as, I did get quite a few calls or contacts from recruiters who had stumbled across my resume and wanted to chat. Some even left comments on my website, having found it through Workopolis.
   1. And just as a side note? While I love the Monster.ca interface a heck of a lot more than the Workopolis.com one, the quality of jobs and leads from Monster.ca very much paled in comparison to Workopolis.com. I guess we know who is still king in that realm.
4. There really aren’t that many jobs out there, to be honest. The number of really good opportunities I’ve seen cross my path as a result of trolling job sites, job blogs, job twitter feeds, etc? Maybe two? At most? This is easy to blame on the recession and while I do think it is playing a big role in this, I think what this really means is that informal websites, people that don’t know you, aren’t going to deliver up the job of your dreams.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what did I get out of all of this? What did my naive and innocent self learn in this process?

1. Don’t rely on other people to lend a helping hand. Now, to be fair, a good friend of mine ReTweeted my “Sales Pitch” on Twitter, which resulted in a co-worker of his seeing it and telling him he’d get me in contact with the founder of an ad agency here in Toronto he knew. Since then, I’ve been chatting with the CEO and he has my resume. Nothing yet, but it’s a good contact to have. This was definitely a positive of the whole experience.
2. Thanks to sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress, it’s becoming easier and easier to make contacts in the industry you want to work in. It’s definitely easier to find like-minded people who share the same passions you do. This is a huge plus to social media. I think it’s important to use social media the best way you can to get your name, your passions, your skill set out there, regardless of whether you’re looking for a job now or not. You never know when you’re going to need to call upon the contacts you’ve made.
3. However, in order for people to be willing to help you, they have to know more than just your online persona. You have to become a real person to them. Which means going out and getting involved in your community. Head to TweetUps. Organize an event or Camp or something. Do what you can to get your face in front of people and your personality well-known to anyone and everyone who could potentially be in a position to help you in your job search. It’s one thing to be smart online. It’s a completely different thing to be smart in-person. And unless you plan on getting a job working out of your basement, these interpersonal skills are crucial. These people need to “see to believe.” As it has been for decades in the job industry, it’s all about who you know. IRL. Real world contacts are your best weapon in the job search.

I think I learned some valuable lessons here. Learnings I will continue to use going forward, as I try to figure out what I want out of my career path and how I am going to get there. To those who are in Toronto and in the online/advertising/tech industry, hopefully you will be seeing a lot more of me.

So what do you think? How have you been finding the job market lately? Any success stories you’d like to share?