The PlanetRecruit Blog

“Do more followers on Twitter make you more employable?"

"Not necessarily", writes Andrew Grill ....

Andrew Grill is CEO of PeopleBrowsr UK, a high-tech social media analytic company.  He is also a regular, and sought after conference presenter on social media, and digital strategy and is the editor of one of the world's leading websites on social & mobile networking LondonCalling.co. 

"Twitter is not a popularity competition", says Andrew Grill, CEO of social media analytics company PeopleBrowsr UK.  

Using Twitter can be a secret weapon in the hunt for a new job in IT but like any job hunt it needs to be part of a wider recruitment strategy. 

I generally look at a candidate’s twitter profile (via their LinkedIn profile)  when making a decision about inviting them in for an interview.  Of interest to me are the number of followers, how many and who they follow, as well as the number of lists people have added them to. A well written twitter biography also tells me they really get social media and how it can work for them. When analysing a candidate’s follower vs following count, an equal number of followers compared to the number they are following says to me that they aren’t really using Twitter in the best possible way. 

A higher number of followers than friends says to me that the candidate has something to say and people want to hear what they are saying. Keeping the following count to a manageable number means being selective about who you follow, and this can pay dividends.

Why ‘IT graduates not employable’ is a present day absurdity

By Sheira Gorris

Sheira co-ordinates the global PR activities for the UK’s largest IT graduate employer, FDM Group. As a graduate herself Sheira works closely with FDM’s graduate trainees and IT Consultants and is heavily involved in topical graduate news.

Sheira also coordinates FDM’s “Women in IT” campaign which aims to encourage as many female graduates as possible to enter the IT industry.

A recent study, commissioned by the Young Enterprise charity, revealed that three in four bosses believe graduates do not possess the skills needed to enter the world of work. The research indicated that thousands of young people currently attend job interviews without the “vital employability skills” needed to secure a graduate role. The surveyed employers pointed to a distinct lack of “commercial awareness,” “technical skills” and “interpersonal skills” as a cause for concern amongst this latest generation of graduates.

Despite these latest findings I am, however, inclined to stress the absurdity of these claims. Firstly it seems incredibly unfair to taint all graduates with the same brush when there are thousands of extremely employable and professional IT graduates out there just waiting for their lucky break.Attending university is also very much about networking and building on your “interpersonal skills” so I do not believe that graduates should be targeted for this. 

How one tweet can land you that dream job

By Andrew Grill  

Andrew Grill is CEO of PeopleBrowsr UK, a high-tech social media analytic company.  He is also a regular, and sought after conference presenter on social media, and digital strategy and is the editor of one of the world's leading websites on social & mobile networking LondonCalling. 

As the CEO of a social media company, Andrew Grill has first-hand experience of how to use twitter to find a job as well as recruit new staff.

In January this year, I was in San Francisco for work and tweeted "I'm in San Francisco for the weekend". I did not expect any sort of response but to my surprise, a fellow Australian whom I had never met but follows me and now lives in San Francisco replied and suggested we catch up for lunch. At lunch we got talking, and he suggested I contact the founder of PeopleBrowsr, Jodee Rich and let's just say the rest is history.

Now I use twitter pretty much exclusively for recruitment and this, I find is a very important screening process for employers in the IT and new media space. If a prospective candidate "gets" social media and how it works, then he or she will be active on the main networks such as twitter and it will show.

A piece of advice for IT candidates: ensure that not only is your LinkedIn profile current and comprehensive but also ensure that your twitter handle is linked to your profile as well as any blogs that you write. Employers see LinkedIn as an online CV and look towards blogs and social media to get a better sense of a candidate's "back story", what makes them tick and what their specialities are.

Before I meet anyone new these days, I always check their LinkedIn profile and hunt for their twitter handle. If I can find it easily, it means they want to be found and I can then find out more about their background from what they post on twitter. Absence of a twitter account (or if it is difficult to find) tells me they really don't get the social media space.

In IT, it is particularly important for candidates to differentiate themselves. Static resources such as your online CV make it hard for a prospective employer or a recruiter to understand you.