Job hunts can be brutal, with seemingly endless applications, cover letters, networking and interviews. But there’s a new trend among job seekers that’s less formal than traditional methods, where they’re using vulnerability along with their creativity.
Danielle Abril, a tech writer for The Washington Post, wrote about how some are turning to social media platforms to stand out to hiring managers and recruiters. She talked to “Marketplace” host Kristin Schwab about the culture shift in looking for work. An edited transcript of their conversation is below.
Kristin Schwab: In your story, you talk about how making your job search public has traditionally been a little taboo, but there’s been a bit of a shift. Can you tell me about that and what that shift looks like, especially online?
Danielle Abril: Absolutely. So, previously, looking for a job was a little bit more taboo. Maybe there was a little bit of self-consciousness tied to that, where people might just go to their inner networks, kind of whisper to the people they’re closest to that they’re looking for a job. But social media has really changed the game, specifically with LinkedIn and the way the market’s gone with mass layoffs and people actually recording their layoffs and being very open and honest about what’s happening in the workplace. So that has really been a culture shift, which has also allowed people to leverage their networks more because people now are using LinkedIn more and more to try to, you know, reach the people they need to, even if they don’t know them. Maybe they have connections at a company they want to work at. And so taking that chance and being really open and less mortified, less humiliated about the circumstance you’re in has been a total change in the past several years.
Schwab: And what are those posts like? What are people saying? Are they just saying, “Hey, I’m open to work,” or does it get a little deeper than that?
Abril: Yeah, so the reason we wrote this story is really because we started seeing it go to a new level, and that’s people getting really personal, either sharing their personal stories, being really creative in their messaging or their attempts to get hired. So, in one case, we saw somebody who really called out the company they were trying to get hired for and said, you know, “Here’s all of the reasons why I’m a great candidate, and I’m gonna tag a lot of the people that I’ve worked for before,” and they chimed in in the comments to kind of sing the praises of this person, and really sort of create almost like a marketing campaign. And then going into the more sincere, sort of touching side where people have been really open and honest about their experiences, about the fact that they might lose their home soon, and just, like, “If anybody has any leads, anything to get me somewhere, you know, I’d be very grateful.” So seeing that sort of vulnerability and creativity is sort of a new sort of light we’re seeing here.
Schwab: Yeah, well, I could see how this could grab the attention when your resume is in a sea of resumes, but it also seems a little risky. What do hiring managers and recruiters think about this?
Abril: So you’re right. You are taking a risk that somebody will look at it and be like, “Oh, this person really needs my help,” or “This is so creative. I like this person. I like the fact that they took this strategy.” We had one recruiter who basically said anything you can do to get out of that stack is great. But we had another recruiter who kind of went the other way and said, “This is just a lot of noise, like, if you tag me in a bunch of stuff, that’s not what’s going to make me change my mind or make me more likely to hire you.” And, unfortunately, because of LinkedIn and other applicant tracking systems, we’ve made it very easy for people to apply, which is great, right? We want to take out the friction in the application process, but the problem with that is, because everything’s become so seamless, basically, employers are getting inundated with candidates. And so sometimes these recruiters are like, “You know, you really need to get in early,” because sometimes they just don’t make it down the stack. They kind of look at the top 100 or 50, and there’s going to be at least 10 good candidates in there. So getting in early is really important.
Schwab: Yeah, well, if proof is in the pudding, did this method work for anybody that you talked to of shouting out on social media?
Abril: So in the cases of the people we spoke to, I didn’t see any actual, like, “This fixed everything and I landed my dream job.” But there was a couple cases where I actually saw that happening on social media, where the person actually did land their dream job. In one case, we saw somebody go on TikTok a little sad, you know, like, “I was laid off, and I’m really upset about this, but I want to show you my profile and everything I can do.” And she went through her skill set, and a hiring manager saw it, and was like, “Wow, I really actually like this person and their skills,” reached out to her and offered her a job right there. So it can happen. What is the likelihood? Unclear.
