Happy Tuesday! Tuesdays at Artisan Talent are dedicated to helping you find a job. We give you interview advice, career tips, industry articles to read, and post the latest hot jobs we are hiring for. I sat down with the four amazing Artisan Talent Recruiters who place people in jobs for web design, graphic design, social media, and photography. They have interviewed countless people and today they are giving college students and soon to be college grads advice on what you should be doing to make yourself stand out once you start applying for jobs. Whether you're applying for an internship or an entry level job, here are 10 job hunting tips from recruiters themselves.
Job Hunting Tips from Recruiters
1. Have a public Twitter that shows your personality and is also appealing to those in the industry you want to work in. If you are applying for a position in a communications or marketing field, you should have a presence on social media and make sure anything that is public is professional.
2. You should keep your personal Facebook as private as possible.
3. If you have a blog or website, make sure the job recruiter/interviewer has easy access to it. Put your link on your business cards and resume, but make sure your website is actually working!
4. You should have a LinkedIn Profile. If not sign up right now and start connecting with your colleagues. LinkedIn will give you suggestions on who you should connect with based on where you go to school, where you work, and who is in your email address book.
5. Set a goal to have 100+ connections on LinkedIn by the time you graduate. Connect with friends, family, people you network with, anyone you interview with, and people you would like to reach out to in your industry. If you do not personally know them make sure you send a follow up message stating who you are and why you wanted to connect with them. If someone messages you, make sure you respond.
6. Make sure you have samples of work you have done whether they are print, online, or through social media. If you have written for a newspaper, magazine, created an ad campaign, or have graphic designs you will want to show them to a potential employer.
7. Attend and ask for informational interviews. Ask people in the industry you wish to work in questions, buy them coffee, and pick their brain. This is a good networking skill and one contact can get your foot in the door. Many schools can also set you up with informational interviews at a company.
8. When attending a professional event, always ask for business cards and take along your own. Connect with people on LinkedIn and tell them how you met them, or what interested you about their presentation.
9. Create your own elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a speech that lasts less than a minute that tells someone who you are, what you can do for them, and what you want to do.
10. Join clubs that have speakers, networking events, agency tours, and workshops. Joining a club also allows you to hold a leadership position and allows you to see what you may be interested in without taking a class having a job.