Five fundamentals of career success

Five fundamentals of career success by Amber Rolfe Ready to create a successful career?No matter what industry you work in or what role you do, there are a few essential rules to follow in order to guarantee career success from setting yourself a clear ambition to being your own leader.  Here are five fundamentals of career success, courtesy of James Reed’s brand new book, Life’s Work: 12 Proven Ways to Fast Track Your Career:  Be ambitious  Top-line tactic: Have BIG ideas.  The first step to creating a career you love is to simply want to.  No matter where you work or what you do, having an ambition big or small is what will allow you to really go places.  To figure out yours, ask yourself, where do you see yourself in the future? And what do you plan to give and receive throughout your career?  Whilst the concept of ‘ambition’ sometimes has bad press, it isn’t actually as negative and grasping as people might think; especially not if it’s used in the right way. So what’s the best way to harne ss it?  Trade with the most precious resource any organisation can have ideas. The more ideas you have and the better you implement them, the more ambitious you can afford to be.    Be a powerhouse of positivity  Top-line tactic: Rise to challenges (even if it scares you).  Positivity is powerful.And there are plenty of studies to prove it. The more meaningful you believe your work to be, and the more positively you view it, the better you’ll feel both mentally and physically.  Once you embrace positive thinking, you’ll start to notice the many opportunities that are surrounding you every day.  For example, not only do you have the opportunity to learn almost anything you can think of through a multitude of platforms, you may also be able to achieve more than you think you can. You just have to rise to the challenge.  Be spirited. Be brave. And stop doubting yourself. It’ll be worth it.  How to: Have a positive attitude at workUnderstand yourself and your organisation  Top-l ine tactic: Figure out what you have to offer your organisation (and what they have to offer you).  Let’s face it, taking a job at an organisation is a bit like entering into a long-term relationship. You have to know yourself and them in order for it to work.  Firstly, think about your strengths. Whether you’re aware of them or not, everybody has them. They range from what you know (e.g. being good at maths or art), to the personal attributes you have (e.g. integrity, curiosity etc.)  Once you’ve pinpointed these, you’ll be able to figure out what you can offer an organisation, and ultimately widen the amount of opportunities available to you.  But it’s not just about you. It’s also about the company you work for/are looking to work for.  There’s no point in being clear in what you have to offer if you know nothing about the place you work. So before you apply for a job or attend an interview, always do your research to ensure it’s the right place for you.  How to: Research a company before you applyKnow your support networkTop-line tactic: Look hard. There may be more than you realise.  When it comes to your career, you can’t do it alone.  So who’s helping you move forward and who’s holding you back? Your answers might make you reevaluate who you spend time with, and whose company you actively seek out.  Obvious support systems include family and friends, but that doesn’t mean that’s all there is.  Whether it’s from clubs you’ve joined, your hobbies, activities you’ve taken part in, the places you’ve studied, or the jobs you’ve done you’ll have gained all kinds of support and advice throughout your life.  Once you take the time to think about each and every aspect of support, you’ll be able to gain the most you possibly can from your experiences. Not to mention identify the people who best help you succeed.  Likewise, you can limit your interactions with the people who hold you back.  Lead yourself  Top-line tactic: B e self-centred.  Your goals may not involve leading others. But they should always involve leading yourself.  If you fail to do this, you won’t be able to set yourself clear career goals, and more importantly, you’ll be too lost to fulfil them.  So how can you become your own leader? Unsurprisingly, it starts with you. Who else is going to make sure that you wake up every morning? Self-reliance, self-motivation, self-discipline, and self-awareness are all vital traits for self-leadership.  Not only should you focus on organising yourself and making proactive decisions, you should also ensure you’re not settling for second best.  This will help you discover what you need to do to get the career you want.  How to: Stay motivated at workReady to fast-track your career?  By the time you retire, you’ll have spent a third of your life at work. That’s far too long to spend in a job you hate.  To find out how to challenge your thinking, approach the world differently, and ultimate ly get ahead at work buy James Reed’s brand new book, Life’s Work: 12 Proven Ways to Fast Track Your Career.Because it’s never too late to create a career you love.Still searching for your perfect position? View all available jobs nowFind a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Features How to start looking for work Life At Work Work-life balance

Approaching an Employer The dos and donts University of Manchester Careers Blog

Approaching an Employer The dos and donts University of Manchester Careers Blog So the University of Manchester Graduate Fair is over and I observed many interactions between employers and soon to be graduates from all over the country. This was a great event with SMEs representing the North West, National and Global Companies in attendance to hire our graduates. I was approached by many international as well as UK and EU students asking advice on how to approach an employer. For example what how to start the conversation, make a first good impression and what topics to avoid. As a result here are my dos and donts for approaching an employer at a fair, event or networking opportunity or by going to their office and speculatively applying for a job. 1. Dress for the job you want,  it doesnt matter if it is 25 degrees outside and the sun is beaming down shorts and t-shirt are not appropriate. When you meet a recruiter you are demonstrating that you can be the face of their company. I wouldnt want to hire someone who did not make an effort to come and see me. It doesnt have to be a suit (in good weather we dont want you to melt) but a shirt/blouse and trousers would be appropriate, dress smart even if the role is in a company where the dress code is casual, because you dont have the job yet! 2. International students  do not talk about visas, sponsorship or hiring of international graduates with recruiters at fairs or events. Do your research first and check the UK Border agency sponsor register know who sponsors and who doesnt before you go. This question potentially causes employers to think you only want to work for them because you need a visa not because you see your career with them.  Take the opportunity to make a good first impression by asking relevant questions about the company values, innovations, projects, culture, progression opportunities, development and retention. Avoid the topic of visas this is something that can be addressed later at interview or offer stage. 3. Demonstrate passion and motivation  by doing your research, know as much as you can about the company and show this through your enthusiasm and questions you prepared for the recruiter. Companies spend a lot of money recruiting graduates and they need to ensure you are right for the role and want to be a part of their organisation so know why you want to work for them. Be prepared to answer this question when you meet a recruiter what interests you about xxxx company? If you dont know then you may struggle to get to the next stage. Remember recruiters make a note of graduates that stand out at events and feed this back to the team in Head Office and this can progress your application so know who you want to work for and why. Be excited and do your research! 4. Do your research and be commercially aware as this is the point where graduates fall down time and time again. We understand your degree is important and you have spent the last few years studying and the idea of more research exacerbates you but it is essential. If you do not know everything you need to know about the companies you are applying to, their values, competitors, projects, etc then you will make a bad impression. Everything you need to know is out there on the web from company innovations, how changes in government and legislation can affect how an organisation runs as well as company accounts, so there are no excuses in being able to demonstrate your commercial awareness. 5. Dont use  negative language or  offer up weaknesses to employers when you engage them in conversation. It is important to only use positive language and use the opportunity to sell your skills and good points to an employer. Dont give the recruiter a reason not to hire you straight off. Do not use language such as just, but and only. Remember you only get one chance to impress them so think hard about what you want to say. 6. Dont talk  about your area of interest if it is not relevant to the employer you are talking to. For example if you want a job in the finance sector dont talk about this with a recruiter in the IT sector as it is not relevant. Similarly attention to detail is key, so double check everything before you submit it to the recruiter and ensure your cover letter is not addressed to PwC when you are applying to Deloitte. 7. Do take your CV Cover Letter to the employer  at fairs and events or their offices, but make sure it is tailored to the job and company you are applying to. Make time to tailor each application as experienced recruiters can spot a general application, CV or cover letter. You should take the time to research, examine and explore the job description thoroughly. Understand what it is the company are looking for in an employee, in terms of skills and competencies, which is usually in the person specification. Remember some companies get such a large volume of applications they can use software to scan document for key words (similar to Turn it In!) so please ensure you use similar and relevant key words in your application. Your cover letter is a sales document and must not be more than 1 page long with 3 paragraphs. The 1st paragraph is about what interests.motivates you about the role/.company you are apply to. The 2nd paragraph is about what you can bring to the company your skill s, achievements and the final paragraph is signing off thank you for considering my application 8. Understand what skills you do have and are they  transferable?  This is crucial when talking to employers at events, self awareness is key. Examine everything you have done to date or been involved in no matter how trivial it may seem because it all counts. This could include volunteering, work experience, society membership, part-time jobs, placements as part of your course, 2 day experiences in companies, open days, attending fairs or company recruitment events. This all counts towards your application and conversation with a recruiter. If you are applying for a field unrelated to your degree understand what skills you have developed and how they may relate to this new field. Finally if in doubt contact your careers service and have a chat with a career consultant who can help you explore your skills and how best to market yourself to employers in person and through an application. Good luck with your job hunting! Careers advice Events and fairs Graduate International etiquette global graduates graduate schemes Graduates job hunting

5 Ways to avoid being overworked

5 Ways to avoid being overworked In the information age, when almost everyone in every office is a knowledge worker, were paid to process information. And since theres an infinite amount of information, theres an infinite amount of work. For everyone. So your boss is probably giving you enough work every week to fill three weeks if you let it. If you work a certain way, it could also fill only three days. My point is that people who feel overworked in some respects choose to be overworked. Here are some choices to make instead. 1. Force your boss to prioritize. Because processing information is not an objective task, you can do a good job or a bad job or any kind of job in between. Which is to say that you dont have to do a great job with everything. You cant, right? Because your boss is giving you too much work. So you have some choices. First, you can try to force your boss to prioritize. Say to him or her, If you want me to do project z perfectly, then you need to get projects w, x, and y off my plate. Maybe your boss will think project z is so important that he or she will clear your plate. But most likely, your boss will say, Forget it. You need to do everything. This is an open invitation to start experimenting with cutting corners. 2. If your boss wont prioritize, do it yourself. Please dont tell me you dont believe in cutting corners. Its the laymans term for prioritizing, and you probably perfected it as a way of life in college. In fact, cutting corners is what college teaches best. Over the course of a semester, you were assigned sixteen 400-page books to read, plus you had to write papers about them. You also had to show up for classes to find out what was going to be on the tests. Of course, there was no way you could read all 6,400 pages you were assigned that would be impossible in the allotted time. So you figured out what you could skip. You determined that the best way to get out of the reading was to go to the lectures, because professors lecture about what interests them, and their tests reflect their interests. Now back to your workplace, where you have too much work to do. Heres how the losers handle it: They complain about being overworked. They keep accepting more work, and trying to do it perfectly, and complain. And their bosses keep dumping it on them and saying theres nothing they can do about the workload. Meanwhile, neither of them is prioritizing, neither of them is taking responsibility for the situation, and each is blaming the other. If you boss insists on giving you more work than you can do, you should start cutting corners. Do everything very quickly, and ignore the idea that it needs to be done perfectly it cant all be done perfectly. Your boss refuses to prioritize for you, so youll have to do everything as best as you can. 3. Get comfortable with ignoring some tasks. For some of you, even doing things less than perfectly will take too much time. In this case, youll have to blow some stuff off. So experiment and see which things can fall through cracks without anyone noticing. You already do this. Someone at work sends you an email demanding a response. But before you have time to reply, another recipient does so, so you just delete the original message. Try this approach with work youre not a central force on and see what happens. 4. Stop complaining before it ruins your life. I can already imagine the comments flying about this column. Some of you will say that youd be fired for following the above advice. But whats your choice? Youve already told your boss you have more work than you can get done in a day, and he or she didnt scale back. Do you want to continue to just complain about it every day? Probably not, because complaining is toxic. Besides, do you really want to work 15 hour days to get extra work done for a company that doesnt respect its employees time? Why should you give up your personal life because your boss cant prioritize? Instead, take control of your life and create a situation where you stop complaining about having too much work. If youre fired for not doing all the work, you probably didnt want to work at the company anyway. And if youre not able to scale back, consider that you might over-identify with your job to the point that youre working harder than you need to because you cant imagine not being perfect. 5. Take responsibility for being overworked, then change it. OK, suppose you love your work and youre happy working 15-hour days. Thats fine. Just dont complain about it. What Im saying is that if you complain about having too much work you should look in the mirror its your own fault, and you can change the situation by drawing boundaries at work. Be an adult by taking responsibility for your time, and complain only when you have a solution. Star performers dont talk about being overworked, they talk about time management. The best time managers excel at it because theyre good at figuring out what they dont have to do. The best time managers have the confidence to say, Ill still be a star even if I dont do that task. This reminds me of Gina Trapani, who edits the Lifehacker blog. Gina and three other editors put out a publication that has more readers than just about every local newspaper in this country, and many national magazines. Surely shes a very busy person. But her productivity tips belie a Zen-like balance in which she isolates the most important things and lets other things languish if need be. Want an example? In order for Gina to blog every day, she has to keep up with hundreds of other bloggers so she knows who to link to. These blogs come to her via direct feed. What does she do when shes falling behind and blog posts are piling up? She clears out her in-box and starts over. If somethings really important, she said at a panel I attended, someone will email me about it. This is great advice from someone whos succeeding in an area where most people would succumb to information overload. Clearly, the way to do good work is to know when its time to not do it.

How The Social Network Movie Will Damage Zuckerbergs Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How The Social Network Movie Will Damage Zuckerbergs Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career The Social Network movie is coming out on October 1st and has already received substantial reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine and other influential publications. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100%, which is extremely rare for this type of movie, or any movie in general. The New York Post says It’s the finest film in many years to open the New York Film Festival. The film is based off of Ben Mezrichs bestselling book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook. The movie showcases how Facebook was created by super genius Mark Zuckerberg, with a great cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, and Justin Timberlake, who needs to release a new album already. Facebook didnt cooperate with Ben or Aaron Sorkin (the writer), while they were filming the movie, but Facebook did open their doors to David Kirkpatrick, who wrote The Facebook Effect, which was also successful. This movie is stirring the media up, and Zuckerberg is scared about his reputation. PR Stunt or Honest Philanthropy? Zuckerberg is now one of the richest people in America, securing the #35 spot on Forbes Magazines list this year, with a net worth of $6.9 billion dollars. As a twenty-something, Marks cover has been blown and now everyone knows exactly how much hes worth. When you become that wealthy, a lot of people want you to donate to charities. Recently, Mark donated $100 million dollars to the Newark, New Jersey public school system and presented the present on The Oprah Show, with NJ Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. The timing of his gift coincided with the release of The Social Network, a movie that will soon paint a negative portrait of him. I believe that this was a major PR stunt because Mark has absolutely no connection to that school district. If he chose something that he really cared about and that was somewhat aligned what he believed in, there would have been a stronger connection and impact. Matt Miller, from The Washington Post, talks about this in his opinion piece. Even Oprah points this out during the show. Theres no doubt that Zuckerberg cares about his image and how hes represented in the media.   His PR team should have spent more time choosing the right cause, crafting a better story, and then announcing it at a different point in time. Zuckerbergs Personal Brand then, now, and after October 1st With the amount of lawsuits Zuckerberg has had over Facebook, one can only suspect how he behaved at Harvard, and if he stole the idea in the beginning or not. The movie makes Zuckerberg out to look like a jerk, who stole the website idea from his colleagues, after they asked for some help with the programming aspect of the website design. Within one week, he will go from a genius beloved billionaire to a vindictive schemer, whose only looking out for himself. Also, Mark used to wear a nametag with Im the CEO B*@#, and one of my friends met him in person and he came off like he was better than everyone else. While some people will overlook The Social Network movie because they really love Facebook, and dont really care about the founder, others will have a very negative view of him. People who really didnt know of Mark before will have this movie be their first impression of him. At some level, this will all be part of how hes remembered, both online and through other media. Something tells me that this movie is going to make over $100 million at the box office, and take Zuckerberg down with it. But, in all fairness, hes made billions, and we havent. Hes developed something that we all use to connect with everyone in your lives. Im not going to hold a grudge, are you? Conclusions In Marks defense, it must be hard to handle thousands of employees, investors, board members, and billions of dollars when youre young and not completely mature. Hes doing his best, but the media does have an incredible impact on brand reputation and Zuckerberg will take a major hit. The movie is rated PG-13, which means that the younger audience will be watching this film as well. For people who arent in the technology space, this will be the highest point of visibility for Zuckerberg (and his character), so its how he will be remembered in most cases. Your turn Do you think The Social Network movie will have a long-term negative impact on Zuckerbergs personal brand?

Preparation - The Key To Unlocking Your Career - CareerMetis.com

Preparation - The Key To Unlocking Your Career If you want to master your career, you’re going to need to prepare.Preparation is key in all areas of your life. For example, if you’re cooking and you don’t know what ingredients to use â€" that’s because you didn’t prepare. If things burn and you are panicking, that is because you didn’t prepare. Preparation is essential for everything from childcare, to home maintenance and cooking. It’s also essential for your career.One of the most obvious ways in which preparation is obviously important in your career is for job interviews. It is very rare that one could walk into a high-level interview and ‘wing it’.evalYou won’t get the job for simply turning up and if you are asked any questions at the interview, you’ll get caught out. The ways in which one can prepare for an interview are numerous. You’ll dress in good clothes so you need to prepare your outfit for the interview by purchasing, cleaning or ironing the clothes.You’ll need to do your research on the r ole so you can not only answer questions, but so that you can ask them as well! You’ll need to plan your journey so that you’re on time and you’ll need to locate the place of the interview, so that you can actually get there.If you don’t prepare in anyway, you’re going to increase the amount of difficulty that you face on the day of interview. In actual fact, you are more than likely decreasing your chances of having a successful interview.Preparation is going to be the strong foundation on which your success is built on top of. If you don’t prepare, the foundation of your success is going to be cracked and your career could sway around on top of it.Where else do we use preparation?Well, it is before the interview stage. We use it to apply for jobs. We read the description and prepare. We write our resumes and application forms. We prepare ourselves as the perfect candidate in the hope we are selected for interview.What about in our jobs? The skill of preparation is key. If certain industries were prepared for the financial crisis of the late noughties, a lot of people might have been better off. Preparation is key in all aspects of working. From organizing your day in an entry level job right through to preparing for the worst case scenarios as a manager.Photo Credit â€" Flickr.comevalWorst case scenarios are going to be the basis of preparation in any kind of job and won’t just define success, they will limit your accountability in an emergency that could have been prevented. The type of thing that might see you losing your job, even. Huge issues face every business worldwide, and planning and preparing for these issues is key.A good example of this would be service outage which is prepared for by investing in data-intensive disaster recovery for any business. Preparing for emergencies is easier than dealing with an emergency.If you want to go anywhere with your career, prepare. If you want to do well in your current role, prepare. If you want to nail an interview, prepare. Preparation is key.

How To Change Negative Perceptions Of You

How To Change Negative Perceptions Of You I was recently asked, “How do you change your reputation?” As in, how do you change the way people perceive you? Now, this is important throughout our careers, whether it’s shifting people’s views from our being tactical to strategic, or from being “a great number two” to being “a great number one”, or it might be more remedial, as was the case with me, and I’ll share that with you in a moment. But remember that “Perception is reality”, as one of my former bosses used to say, and that means we have to deal with these perceptions as if they are real, because they are very real to the people that are perceiving it about us. Also, remember that reputation is not the same as our identity. That’s good news, because then we can let go of the anxiety a little bit, because we don’t need to take it quite so personally. Three ways to change people’s negative perceptions of you Now, while it’s difficult to change perceptions when they’re ingrained, it’s definitely possible and it’s usually done through a combination of the following: Making a significant change in your behaviour, as in, almost 180 degrees different Making a concerted effort to demonstrate the change to the people that matter, and Time 1. Make a significant change in your behavior Now, when it comes to making a significant change in the behavior, you want to start by looking at what contributed to your current perception, and what kind of future perception you want to create. That’s generally going to be around your behaviors, the words and language you use, and your approach and mindset. For me, there was a point in my career where I had the reputation of being somebody junior people did not want to work for. I had the reputation of being an inefficient “resource burner”, and that’s because, in preparing for client meetings I was really insecure. I didn’t want to get caught out, so my crutch was having people prepare these giant presentation books that went from tab A to Z, and it turned out we only ever used tabs A through C or D, so it was a bit demoralising. Instead, I needed to create a future perception of myself as very efficient in using resources, and surgical and strategic in the way I prepared for meetings. That, for me, meant instead of those big fat books, I went to very slim books, and ultimately to no books at all. I came up with some stock phrases that I could use in meetings when people asked me questions I didn’t know the answer to. Things like, “That’s a great question, let me reflect on that and come back to you.” 2. Make a concerted effort to demonstrate the change to the people who matter Now, when it comes to making a concerted effort to demonstrate the change, what’s important here is to identify the situations where this comes up and then the people involved. The situations are really important, because if you can spot them and anticipate them even, then you can turn them into what I call pivotal moments, where you are introducing your new behavior, introducing those new data points. As you do that, you want to signpost these changes, really put a spotlight on it by using the language associated with that future perception you want to create. So, for me, it was saying things like, “Hey, let’s be efficient about this,” or, “Let’s be surgical and strategic in our approach”, or “Let’s not use a book at all.” 3. Give it Time Then, third, it’s about time, and there are three ways you can shift the amount of time it takes. The first is about upping the frequency with which you can show people these new data points, so I call them having more ‘at bats’, to use a baseball analogy. The second is to be sure that you’re making the most dramatic change you can. So for me, instead of making the shift from tab A to Z down to just tabs A through K, that wouldn’t have moved the needle for me, I needed to go from A to Z down to one tab, or no book at all. The third one is enlisting people who have already seen you make the shift so that they can help change misperceptions when they hear it from others. Your action plan So, to summarise, when it comes to changing perceptions I’d like you to do three things. First, is push yourself to get out there and demonstrate the changes that you’re making. Do that early, often and consistently. Second, is be patient with yourself, and set up some milestones in between, so that you can feel encouraged that you’re making progress, because it might just come down to needing to change people’s perceptions one by one. Third, is just keep at it. Let me leave you with this question: what perceptions have you had to change, and what strategies have worked most successfully for you?

Top Social Media Platforms to Boost your Job Search IM HIRED

Top Social Media Platforms to Boost your Job Search Getting social (social media) in the Job Search With 84% of employers actively recruiting on social media, its essential to boost your online presence. Becoming more proactive in your job search. If youre still just sending off an application and expecting employers to come to you, then youre definitely behind the times with your job search. Facebook is no longer reserved for stalking old classmates, your online profile can get you one step closer to landing your dream career. But Facebook isnt the only platform that can enhance your career hunt. Here are the 5 best social media platforms you need to be using to get yourself hired. LinkedIn LinkedIn is the place to be if you want to accelerate your job search. With 563 million users, you can connect with like-minded professionals, recruiters, and even hiring managers. Where else can you get direct access to CEOs, directors and decision makers without having to get through those hard faced receptionists. Be sure to optimise your profile before beginning. In the same way as when producing your CV, your LinkedIn profile should highlight your skills and experience. Reach out to ex or current colleagues and endorse them or provide them with positive testimonials. Theyre then more likely to return the favour which will boost your profile. Networking is a vital part of your job search. Connect with the right people and follow companies within the sector youre looking to pursue. Put in the effort and research your chosen industry by joining sector specific groups, contributing to the discussion. If your not a fan of networking then the old fashion method of reviewing job posts is a must. Whether searching directly on companies pages or using the job section function to sign up for alerts. Facebook This is another social media platform with a dedicated job section, taking the fuss out of the application process. You can now search for roles in-between watching endless short videos and liking your friends comments. I hear more and more that no one is using Facebook anymore but with 2.27 billion users, employers are still seeing the benefits of actively promoting themselves on Facebook. A word to the wise-remember if youre going to mix your Facebook profile with your job search, have a spring clean before you get applying. Make private what you wouldnt want a potential employer to see. Then youre free to start liking company pages, joining common interest groups and using your current friend list to help you get hired. Instagram Your personal brand is definitely something you need to pay attention to. Social media sites such as Instagram allow you to showcase your skills to employers before you even apply for a role. Instead of just posting pictures of your drunken nights out or evenings in with a Chinese, consider adding pictures or stories that add value to your CV. For example, if youre a designer why not upload pictures that support your portfolio or if youre a gym instructor post videos of a class or workout. Connect with brands/companies by liking or commenting on their posts. Using relevant hashtags to get you noticed. #jobsearch Twitter Twitter isnt only for Donald Trumps rants it can be a great social media platform to share advice and guidance. By using hashtags you can freely open up a dialogue with recruiters or career coaches such as myself. Get a almost instant response from employers, showcasing your interest and motivation to pursue a career in their industry. Consider adding links to your LinkedIn profile allowing recruiters to go to a platform that displays your work experience. Whilst there isnt a specific section for jobs, search hashtags such as #hiring or #vacancy to find the latest job roles. YouTube Whilst YouTube might not technically be a social media platform it could be a great addition to the career hunt. With hundreds of applications per job who has time to review countless CVs. YouTube could be the answer to setting yourself apart from the competition. Video CV submissions are becoming more popular. With everyone having access to a smart phone, its easier than ever to upload your own content. Why not upload a elevator pitch, demonstrating the skills and experience that make you the ideal candidate. But, if youre afraid to get in front of the camera dont give YouTube a miss. With over a billion users there are plenty videos out there that provide career advice and coaching. So next time youre on the commute to work, get a bit of education that will excel your application.