How To Get Found By Recruiters

Looking to get found by some of the best recruiters? Kevin Donlin suggests "tweeting on twitter" and getting a personal referral.

By Kevin Donlin, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: July 8, 2008 - 1:22 PM

Recruiters, also called headhunters, get paid by companies to beat the bushes for talented employees.

Recruiters can be an important tool in your job-search arsenal.

So, anything you can do to get noticed by more recruiters can ultimately help you get hired faster by employers.

Here are two ways to do just that. One is new and high-tech. The other is neither.

1) Tweet on Twitter

You may have heard about Twitter.com. It's a social networking site that's been described as "micro blogging" – a cross between instant messaging and blogging – because you're allowed only 140 characters per post.

In addition to posting "tweets" about your own life, you can search for and "follow" people on Twitter to see what they're up to in real time.

And it just might help you start a relationship with a recruiter that leads to a new job. Because recruiters, especially those who fill high-tech positions, are using Twitter to find and be found by candidates.

"I recently got three referrals to candidates within two minutes of posting on Twitter about a job I was trying to fill," says Paul DeBettignies, Managing Partner of Nerd Search, a Minneapolis-based recruiting firm.

But how can you get on a headhunter's radar using Twitter?

Recent Jobs: Technology Careers stories

Lack of Laboratorians: A "Quiet Crisis" - July 8, 2008

Lack of Laboratorians: A "Quiet Crisis" - A year and a half ago, Michelle Briski, Medical Laboratory Technician Program director for Saint Paul College, called the shortage of laboratorians a "quiet crisis in healthcare." Today, according to Carol McCoy, Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Program director for Fairview Health Services, "The shortage is only getting worse." More