Crafting an Effective “Looking for Work” Tweet
Looking for a job in tech? Want to use Twitter to improve your reach? Here are some tips to get you started.
Twitter is an amazing resource for people who are looking for work, especially in the software industry.
People are more than happy to retweet well-crafted tweets and help you out, even if they don’t know you. And it only takes a few connections to reach your next employer.
However, some “looking for work” tweets stand head and shoulders above the rest. These tweets get massive interaction, support, and in effect, offers! Here are some not-so-secrets to making your tweet more persuasive and effectively compelling.
1. Start with the simple fact that you’re looking for work
People are scrolling through their timeline quickly. You want to catch their eye and quickly convey the primary idea of the tweet. You’ll also want to mention if you’re in a particular location, want to work remotely, or are willing to relocate.
Example: “I’m looking for a new job in Portland, Seattle, or remote.”
2. Answer the basics so the reader doesn’t have to ask
There are millions of people on Twitter — somewhere around 100–150 million daily active users. So, while “I’m looking for work” might make perfect sense to your followers, you’ll want to make sure to clarify what role you’re looking for, so people who aren’t familiar with you know right away.
You might also include more specifics if you want, such as what industry you’re interested in.
Example: “Interested in a senior front-end web development role.”
3. List your technical skills briefly.
Potential employers will want to know if your skills are a match for what they do. In the case of a software developer, you can focus on the technologies you’re familiar with. Start with your strongest tech.
Consider including something like “I’m also learning Python and PostgresQL” to indicate you’re working on expanding your skill set.
Example: “Skilled at React, TypeScript, & Redux, & have a working knowledge of React Native. I’ve also done more Webpack than I care to admit.”
4. Link to your portfolio, website, blog, or work
If a potential employer is interested, they’ll want to learn more. Link out to your website, portfolio, blog, or side project so they can see the quality of work you do.
You can also include a screenshot or video of something cool you’ve built.
Example: “Learn more: jamon.me”
5. Add a little personal touch
To stand out from the crowd, it’s good to “humanize” your tweet a bit. You can use humor, a fun fact, or some soft skills you’re really good at.
Example: “I love coding!” or “Skills dependent on coffee intake”
5. Include a call to action
Once someone is interested, give them a way to contact you! It can be a good idea to open your direct messages (DMs) while you search for a job, although this is more risky for some people than others.
Example: “DMs open!” or “Email me: firstname at infinite dot red”
6. Spruce up your Twitter presence
This might be a bit controversial, but I still think it’s true. While your Twitter should represent “you”, the reality is that potential employers might be put off if it doesn’t seem to exhibit a preferred level of professionalism.
Edit your bio to include the role you’re looking for (“Senior Front-End Web Developer”) and your website. Keep things positive (you can vent in DMs to your friends). And keep in mind that a potential employer could be reading your tweets.
You can always delete old tweets that you don’t feel represent the version of you that you’d like to see in the world. If you’re really concerned about it, you could use a service like Ferretly to surface tweets that might cause problems for you. Not every employer will care, but if you’re looking to maximize your possibility of getting an interview, this is another tool to use.
Here are some good things to tweet that will look good to prospective employers (shoutout to Pariss Athena for her great tweet about this):
- What technologies you’re learning
- Advice on things you’re particularly good at
- Side projects and open source
- Mistakes you’ve made along the way and how you’ve learned from them
As Pariss says, “Tweet your journey, gain a network”.
7. Tweet it!
Push that “Tweet” button and send it out into the world! Fly away, little birdie.
Then go “pin” that tweet to your profile by clicking the little icon on the top right of your tweet. This will ensure anyone “lurking” your profile will see it first.
This is important — now go message at least ten of your Twitter friends and send them the link, along with a message like this: “Hey! I just posted a job-hunting tweet. I’d love it if you would retweet it to help get some more exposure.” Preferably, send it to fifty! Don’t forget to thank them when they do retweet it. It’s okay if some don’t want to — all it takes is a few and it’ll usually take off.
8. Follow up
The last thing you would want is to do all this work to create a great job-hunting tweet, promote it, and then miss a great opportunity because you don’t keep up on your Twitter mentions.
If all goes well, you will get replies wishing you good luck, pointing you to potential job opportunities, and tagging other people who might be interested in talking with you. I recommend “liking” every reply to your tweet (except, of course, jerks). Always be polite. Reply to each one and tell them something along the lines of “Thank you! Please do let me know if you see an opportunity that might fit my needs.”. It’s sometimes good to even DM those people to express your appreciation. People will often go the extra mile for you if they see that you’re appreciative.
9. Be persistent
Sometimes, the first round doesn’t work out. The opportunities aren’t quite right, or you don’t interview well, or there aren’t quite enough options.
Don’t give up! Perhaps the right job wasn’t available at that time but will be soon. Timing is super important.
Wait a bit (a week or two) and then do it again. Do not mention your previous tweet (for example, don’t say “I’m still looking for work” or quote-tweet the previous one). Make it new, fresh, and try a different tack. Message 10+ of your twitter connections (but not the same people you did before!) and have them retweet, again. And keep pushing until you get that job!
Examples
Here are a few good examples of job-hunting tweets:
Good luck!
If this article helped you, link to your new job-hunting tweet as a reply to my tweet below. Let me know what you think of the article as well.
Lastly — when you get that amazing job, pay it forward by retweeting and supporting people who are looking for work. Good luck! 💜
Jamon Holmgren is co-founder and CTO of Infinite Red, a mobile app/web design and dev company specializing in React and React Native. Infinite Red is based in the Portland area & distributed across the USA. He lives in southwest Washington State with his wife and four kids. Follow him on Twitter for more tech discussions, dad jokes, and random pictures of him in goalie gear. You can also find him writing over on Red Shift!
Special thanks to Stephanie Hurlbert for her excellent Twitter thread with a lot of great ideas that contributed to this post and Pariss Athena for her tweet about things to tweet about as you start your tech journey.
