Why you should be using Delicious on your job search.

Everywhere we turn right now people are facing challenges in looking for a new job. Charlie O’Donnell of Path101 has written a few great posts about how to look for a job in this economy on his personal blog www.ThisIsGoingToBeBig.com where he does a great job of breaking down the basics of a job search in this article How to Get a Job in 2009 . Companies are hiring you and your reputation. That’s it. If you are not managing your public persona and following the steps Charlie has layed out then you are behind the eight ball and the clock is ticking. What are you waiting for? If you are not doing everything you can to leverage your reputation as someone who “gets it”, then it will be a long struggle of applying to job postings on Monster, Careerbuilder, TheLadders, and other job sites where millions of others are doing the same thing. A friend recently interviewed with a PR company here in Cleveland, OH, where 120 people have applied for the same position in just two weeks.. That’s right 120 people applied for the position in two weeks. That is serious competition. Its time to focus on a few things to stand out from the crowd and improve your job hunt and your personal network. After Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, you need to be using the social book marking site, Delicious. How can Delicious help you get a job? Well, let me explain how to properly leverage it. 

A few things before we get started. First, you need to be on Delicious yourself, so sign up already! Next, we need to find people who use Delicious frequently, so we can start to follow them. Take a look at the blogs you read, most will have links to their delicious accounts, so start following them. Then ask the people in your LinkedIn network, your personal network, people on Twitter, who you should be following and paying attention too. Research the companies you want to work for and find people at these companies in positions you are interested in. Reach out to them and ask them if they are using delicious at all. Let them know you are interested in learning from them if they are. I am sure they would be flattered and glad to have you as a follower. 

Okay, so now you have signed up and found people on Delicious at companies you are interested in working for, how can you leverage this? It’s simple.  

Say I am about to graduate in the spring and I really want to work at Nike in their marketing department and I am following a person in that department on Delicious. Next, I want to start paying attention to what the person is reading. I want click and read every article the person has saved and tagged with marketing or advertising in their account. I would pay special attention to the notes field under each tagged article. The notes are written by the user and are extremely important. The notes will tell me how the person feels about the article and key points to pay attention to. I will also start to learn where they are getting their info and who they deem worthwhile to read. I would start to pay attention to these sources as well. 

Next, after reading thru most of the articles I will begin to develop a feel for the strategy of Nike’s marketing efforts and this person in particular. For example, if I noticed a lot articles relating to marketing products on the web, specific examples of past campaigns, notes about how great certain social media strategies are for consumer products, etc I would reach out to this person with articles I have read that relate to their thinking and tag them for that person’s inbox. Then, I would send an email to the person asking to speak further about why they like a particular web strategy more than another. Now the dialogue is open. I am adding value to them by providing relevant articles they may have missed and I am learning about the inner workings of their strategy. Over the time of this dialogue, the person at Nike will say “Wow, this kid gets it” This person took the time to do some research about our strategy, has proven they can add value / be a strategic thinker / and most importantly established a relationship.  

Fast forward some time and a job is open at Nike in their marketing department. Now, you not only have a connection within the company that you have exchanged dialogue with, but you have demonstrated you are someone who “gets it” You have added value over the weeks / months of staying current on their strategy, providing links with relevant articles, and digging deep into their thought process. They know if you were brought on board, the training would be minimal and that you are a go getter already. They have had dialogue with you. They probably read your blog. Hopefully they have spoken to you on the phone already. And the best part is, all of this is done well before you even applied. I am willing to bet if you do this your chances of gaining an interview at any company will go up 10x. 

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