1. CHAPTER SEVEN

2. TWITTER

3. Valuable information and networking opportunities. There are entire communities of like-minded people – people in roles you would love – and they’re regularly tweeting content related to their work. This is the place to find out what people are working on, to hear about trending topics in different sectors and to know what prominent people in the industry have to say about them. This makes Twitter a real gold mine when it comes to researching and understanding careers. It can also give your an edge when doing background research before you write a job application or attend an interview. TWITTER

4. Overview of your experience Add rich media, such as photographs or PDFs of your work Post updates related to your sector on your timeline groups for all kinds of professional interests, where you can ask questions, share articles and discuss news items TWITTER HANDLE Your chosen name on Twitter, preceded by the “ @ ” symbol e.g. @johnsmith or @javagirl Overview of your experience Add rich media, such as photographs or PDFs of your work Post updates related to your sector on your timeline groups for all kinds of professional interests, where you can ask questions, share articles and discuss news items # (HASHTAG) “ # ” is the symbol attached to keywords in your tweet – for example, “Busy writing applications, trying to get this #career figured out for when I #graduate in June!” You can use hashtags to label the theme of your tweet, so if someone searches for tweets about #graduate, your tweet will come up in this search. TWEET Your posts on Twitter are called “tweets”. They can be up to 140 characters long RT (RETWEET) When you share someone else’s tweet, this is called a “retweet”. You can click the “Retweet” button to share the entire tweet, and this will also give you the option to preface it with your own tweet commenting on what you’re sharing. When you use the “Retweet” function, the original poster will get an alert in his “notifications” tab.

5. Overview of your experience Add rich media, such as photographs or PDFs of your work Post updates related to your sector on your timeline groups for all kinds of professional interests, where you can ask questions, share articles and discuss news items MT (MODIFIED TWEET) If you want to manually share someone’s tweet and incorporate it into your own tweet, you’ll probably need to edit down the original tweet so that it all fits in 140 characters. Preface the modified tweet with “MT” to indicate that you’ve edited it, for example “Great tip to make sure you send those CVs and cover letters in on time. MT @careertips Make a job application schedule and stick to it”. When you share someone’s tweet in this way, they will receive a notification in their “Mentions” tab because you will have mentioned their Twitter handle in your own tweet. LIKE You might see a tweet that you like and that you want to refer to later. Clicking the “Like” button will alert the person who shared it that you’ve liked it, and you will be able to find that tweet later in you “Likes” tab. YOUR PROFILE Choose a username and upload a profile picture. Include a profile photo that shows your face instead of an inanimate object or a sunset. YOUR TWITTER BIO You have 160 characters to write a few words about yourself, and this information will show up on your profile. You can personalise this by saying who you are, what you’re interested in and what you tweet about. In addition, you can include links to any other profiles you have online.

6. WHO TO FOLLOW Follow companies in your sector of interest. You never know when they might have a job opportunity available. Follow individuals working at your target companies. See what topics are coming up in that sector, and get an insight into their working life. RUN A SEARCH ON A SEARCH ENGINE TO FIND KEY PEOPLE WORKING IN THE SECTOR, AND IF YOU CAN FIND THEM ON TWITTER, CLICK ”FOLLOW”

7. WHO TO FOLLOW Companies and individuals often include their Twitter handles on their websites. As you start following people, go to their profiles, see whom they are following, quoting and retweeting, and consider following those people too. If you use this method, you’ll find that you can very quickly create a long list of interesting accounts to follow. They in turn can give great insight into trending topics in your area of interest, help you to find out who the thought leaders are and inform you when jobs you might like to apply for are advertised. There are plenty of Twitter accounts dedicated to posting jobs. Follow general job site accounts like @graduatejobsUK or @guardian_jobs to get a sense of what’s out there. You could also follow accounts that tweet jobs related to specific sectors. There are countless Twitter accounts which are very tailored to different careers, such as @polscijobs, @PsychJobs and @animationjobs. Keyword search for your desired job title and location, along with the word “job”, to locate accounts relevant to you

8. The # hashtag symbol is Twitter’s way of categorising tweets according to themes. You will see the # symbol as you scroll through people’s tweets, usually beside a keyword or phrase. By clicking any of them, for example #devchat or #codingnews or #chemjobs, you can quickly gain access to an extremely targeted feed of information that is of specific interest to you. 1 | Go to www.twubs.com and search for one of your career keywords in the search function, or look through the list of highlighted hashtags to see what is of interest. 2 | Put the hashtag you’re interested in into the search bar on Twitter to see what people are tweeting on the subject. 3 | Twitter automatically shows you the “Top tweets” with this hashtag. Click “All tweets” to access even more related updates. HASHTAG

9. Twitter chats are Twitter “events” where a group of like-minded individuals use a hashtag that has been pre-agreed and have an online conversation about their thoughts or experiences in relation to that topic. This might include chatting about a conference, a current affairs story or careers advice related to different sectors. Career-related chats are often led by organisations. They may be hiring and hence researching who is out there, or they may simply be trying to drum up interest in their business. Either way, taking part in these will improve your exposure in that specific business category. TWITTER CHATS

10. Create lists of Twitter accounts according to categories. You don’t have to categorise everyone you follow, but it is a handy way for anyone looking at your profile to see what your main interests are much more quickly than trawling through the whole list of people you follow. It also allows you to tailor what you see on Twitter, so you can click into your various lists to only see tweets within specific categories depending on what you want to read at a particular time. LIST LOGIC

11. YOUR TWEETS If you do decide to tweet, fill your Twitter feed with a wide variety of content, from your own thoughts, ideas and photographs of interesting things you come across, to engaging content from around the web. It can take a bit of practice to be able to get a message across in just 140 characters, but it can be done! If you are sharing links, these can take up a lot of space. You can use a link-shortening website like https://bitly.com to convert a long web address into a short code that you can include in your tweet. It’s free to use and gives you more space to write what you want to say about the link you’re sharing. Post a mix of career-focused and personal tweets, to show your focus but also to let readers get to know you a little bit at the same time.

12. INTERACTION ON TWITTER You can interact with people on Twitter in a number of ways. Following them is not really interacting – it’s just a basic first step. You can “favourite” people’s tweets that you like, or reply directly to tweets that others have written. Bear in mind that those replies can be seen by anyone who clicks through that person’s profile. Another way to interact with people is to tag them in your tweets by including their Twitter handle. So it’s a simple way of acknowledging the person. They might even retweet what you have posted, gaining you a few more followers. Graduate recruiters are using Twitter to build their brand and interact with students. Check Twitter feeds of companies you’re targeting, to see what opportunities there are to interact. Many companies have specific career accounts on Twitter, and some also run separate accounts specifically to promote their graduate opportunities.