Using social media to find jobs

Find jobs on Facebook

Get tips to find jobs, and connect with employers and organisations.

On Facebook you can connect with other people, groups, and organisations.

People often use Facebook to share information with family and friends. Users can post comments, share pictures, videos, and links to other posts.

Find jobs on Facebook by:

• Searching for local community Facebook pages or Facebook groups. Join the group or follow the page. You could post to ask if people know of any employers recruiting or jobs in the area. It helps to give an idea of the type of job you are looking for
• Searching for a local employer’s Facebook page. Look through their posts to see if there are any job vacancies. If you would like to work for them, like the page. In the ‘follow settings’ for that page you can choose how you see posts in your feed. Make choices about the notifications you get for their posts
• Following the pages of any local recruitment agencies that post the types of jobs that interest you
• Writing a post on your own timeline to let your friends, family and connections know you are looking for work. They might know about jobs that they can tell you about
• Searching for ‘Jobs in Wales’ and see if something in your local area comes up

Find jobs on LinkedIn

Discover how to search for jobs, make business connections and share your professional profile.

LinkedIn is a professional networking channel.

Create your LinkedIn profile like an online CV. Use it to highlight your skills and experience and keep it up to date.

LinkedIn headings suggest information to include. Visit Build a CV if you need ideas. Take the Buzz Quiz to help you identify your strengths for your LinkedIn profile.

Your homepage shows posts from your contacts and companies you follow. These could include job vacancies but LinkedIn has a jobs section where you can search for jobs.

Your headline appears under your profile picture. Use it to provide a clear statement about yourself as people will see this when they search.

You can let people know you are looking for work by selecting ‘open to finding a new job' in your profile.

Build your LinkedIn network and what you see on your homepage by making connections. Do this by:

• Joining school, college, or university alumni groups
• Connecting with current and previous colleagues
• Researching companies you are interested in and following them
• Searching for and joining groups that cover topics of interest

Find jobs on Twitter

Explore ways to find jobs and which hashtags will help you find jobs near you.

You can use Twitter to post, like and reply to short messages called tweets. Tweets are up to 280 characters long. They can include pictures, videos, links, and text.

Find jobs on Twitter by:

• Following employers, job sites or recruiters that interest you
• Making or subscribing to a ‘twitter list’ to follow accounts that share content about a certain topic or industry
• Looking out for separate accounts that larger organisations might use to share their job vacancies
• Following your local Job Centre Plus account
• Searching for hashtags used to round-up local job vacancies

Content on Twitter moves very quickly. Get the most out of Twitter by tweeting regularly. Use the 160 characters in your Twitter bio to give a summary of you and your interests.

Job Centre Plus have accounts that tweet vacancies and useful job search information covering all regions of Wales. Follow the accounts in your area and search for the hashtags to find tweets about jobs. Job Centre Plus post tweets at the same time each week, but you can search for and find them at any time.

@JCPyngNghymru is a Job Centre Plus Twitter account that tweets in Welsh for all regions.

Building your own network on Twitter takes time and effort. People share interesting thoughts and content about different industries. Start by finding them and following them.

Get involved in conversations by:

• Liking interesting tweets and tweeting a reply
• Retweeting interesting content from organisations and mentioning other accounts using their @ profile name
• Following and engaging with friends and people you have worked with
• Taking part in Twitter chats. These take place regularly and use a specific hashtag. Find ones that cover jobs or topics that interest you