Monday, February 14, 2011

My experiment with a Twitter Resume

It has always been hard for me to boil down my experience into a 1-page resume. After all, my years at college with all of my activities and leadership positions, my jobs and internships from the Senate to NOAA to a Non-profit cannot really be summarized to a page, can they? My life boiled down to a piece of paper that empoyers evaluate before they ever meet me.

If you are like me, you have spent hours agonizing over what goes on your resume. From the formatting to the information to include, to proof reading and customizing to the job you are applying for, it ends up being rediculous! So imagine the challenge I took on when I thought about a Tweet Resume.

We have seeen how many jobs are listed on twitter, and we know from personal experience how easy it is to re-tweet something. So why not combine these factors and create a 'Tweeteme' (ya, not sold on the name) that links to Linkedin and can be easily seen by potential employers. It is time to make social media work for us.

After many edits, and a response or two from random Twitter users who liked the idea, I tweeted out my first version:

@adamtager: Senior @AmericanU & Leg Affiars @jfederations DC. Comm/Outreach @usnoaagov OLE, Press @SenChrisDodd, RA/CM @AUHDP http://linkd.in/e0BWdD

It can use improvement, I know, but this is an experiement that I want to keep at. By attaching the handles of my organization, people viewing can see the legitimacy of those who I have worked for in the past. Beyond that, all of the experience in the Tweet is explained in depth in my Linkedin page that is linked in the tweet. I am honestly curious what I can do with this, and excited to be on the cutting edge of something that may, one day, hit a tipping point and be common practice.

6 comments:

delphine said...

What a great idea! It's like the two minute elevator pitch. And obviously another way to market yourself via the evolving social media channels.

Kaitlin said...

I think this is interesting, but it is also a little disturbing that whether or not someone might consider hiring me could be decided in less than 140 characters. That's a lot shorter than 2 minutes.
Which is why I'd prefer linking to LinkedIn or an online resume, where people can see the organizations I've worked with, but can also see a little more about me as a person. Maybe it's so last generation of me, but I don't want to be summed up in a tweet.

Kate F said...

While I am still trying to figure out exactly the purpose of Twitter, I like this idea as another useful example of its potential. I don't think a Twitter resume would serve as the end-all resume but it is another layer to add to your portfolio - like the online CV idea posted earlier. They are all dimensions to show a potential employer your potential.

Doc Alex said...

Great Idea!!!

Vitoriana said...

This is great, keep working at it and as you get feedback from users on Twitter, keep tweaking it to make it better. Good luck!

Adam said...

Thanks for the comments all.

Delphine and Kaitlin- I think it is a cross between the elevator pitch and just a tweet. I have a link to me linkedin profile at the end, so I hope that they will look at that too, and not just me in my 140 character form....

I anticipate this as more of a foot in the door/exposure tool than something that will actually land me a job on its own. I'll keep you updated