“No luck in the job search. Web designers are a dime a dozen, I think, and freelancing is just getting old.“
That’s what I tweeted at 6:51 PM on April 16, 2011, and that’s the tweet that got me the job I have today.
I know, I know. There’s been like a million posts on “The Power of Twitter” and “Why You Should Be Using Social Media.” Well here’s another one bitches, so suck it.
Just kidding. Or am I?
In all super seriousness, I’m a fan of social media. When I first started freelancing years ago and discovering Twitter, I was amazed at the networking possibilities it offered. It became my gateway into the Phoenix web industry, and before I knew it, I was actually getting small jobs from contacts I’d made (my first being some design for a WordPress plugin built by a developer in Little Rock).
Granted I’ve not made the leaps and bounds that many others have considering how long I’ve been using social media, but I’ve gone through a few different accounts over the years. Regardless, I continue to use it and see no end to my participation in the social cloud.
But anyway, back to the story. After a hiatus during which I was basically acting as a caregiver for my old man before he passed, I jumped back into the world of web design but wasn’t really sure what was going on in the business. I started to reconnect with old contacts and quickly began picking up some freelance work. But I became demotivated with doing freelance again, so I decided to put together the old resume and see about landing a proper web design/developer position.
I took the traditional route by searching job sites and sending my resume. I never heard back from those companies I’d applied with. Then, one April evening, I posted the above mentioned tweet.
The chain reaction of what happened next was pretty epic. First I received a message through LinkedIn (of which my Twitter updates get displayed) from a web developer in L.A. with whom I had no relationship nor knowledge of. He mentioned that AIR Marketing in Phoenix was hiring. I’d heard of AIR before and took a look at their website. After seeing who their big name clients were, I pretty much figured that there was no way I’d get a job with an agency like that, so I did nothing.
Then, as if the planets were aligned, the Digital Director (Mark) at AIR contacted me via Twitter and asked how my job search was going. Now keep in mind that the developer from LinkedIn had never contacted Mark about my tweet, it was purely coincidence. We spent some time rapping via Facebook chat, and a couple days later he was sending me a few small development jobs.
A couple weeks later he brought me in to do a pseudo-formal interview with himself and another developer. Less than a week after that I was working out of the office, getting a feel for the agency and talking with some of the folks there. And by the end of that first week, I’d been formally offered the full-time position.
Boom. Head shot.
So there you have it. A tweet that turned into probably the best job I’ve ever had – an awesome agency with an awesome way of doing things, and people that I genuinely enjoy seeing and working with.
Those of us who stay active in social media know too well the naysayers who simply can’t wrap their heads around why people would “waste” their time on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the slew of other networks with updates, photos, random thoughts and whatnot. This is why, you balloon heads. Because people are talking via these networks, and people are paying attention to what’s being said.
End of story.