Brie Weiler Reynolds is the content and social media manager at FlexJobs, the award-winning site for telecommuting and flexible job listings, and a former career advisor. At FlexJobs, Brie offers job seekers career and work-life balance advice through the FlexJobs Blog and social media, including Pinterest.
Now that Pinterest is a full-blown cultural phenomenon, people have started considering it for uses other than inspiration for recipes, home decor and the latest fashions. And with a shaky economy and millions of people either out of work, underemployed or looking to change jobs, Pinterest is now being used as a job search tool.
At the beginning of 2012, Mashable asked, Can Pinterest Help Your Job Search?, and we're answering "Yes!" with five ways to use Pinterest in your job search and your career development.
1. Pin Your Resume
Search for "my resume" on Pinterest, and you'll get thousands of hits. Be more specific with your search terms (writer resume, business resume, graphic design resume) and more results pop up. Some are basic resumes with standard information and layout. Others are stylized pieces with creative layouts and catchy graphics. Most fall somewhere in between. The goal of pinning your resume to Pinterest is to get it shared throughout the site, so make sure it's somewhat eye catching, error-free and compelling — wouldn't you want those qualities in your resume, anyway?
2. Create a Resume Pinboard
Rather than pinning your full resume as one pin, create an entire board that represents the different parts of your resume with different pins. Pin pictures of the companies you've worked for, schools you've attended, places you've volunteered and hobbies you enjoy. Because Pinterest is a visual medium, it can provide a multi-dimensional representation of your two-dimensional resume. And, utilize the text box given with each pin to describe the image, how it relates to your career and why it's important to you.
3. Follow Career Experts
If you're in the market for some job search advice, Pinterest has a lot to offer. Sites like CareerBliss use pinboards to showcase inspiring ideas and items related to finding work that makes people happy. College career offices such as Penn State's give tips geared towards newbies in the workforce. And The 405 Club caters to career advice for the unemployed.
4. Link to Your Pinterest Resume
Once you've created a board for your resume, you need to tell people about it. Add it to your LinkedIn portfolio, your Facebook and Twitter profiles and your paper resume. Include it in your email signature, and add it to business or calling cards if you have them. The more places you show off your Pinterest page, the more it can help your job search. Just be sure to keep all your boards clean and professional because they're all viewable by anyone, at any time.
5. Be Inspired in Your Job Seach
If you're not ready to pin your life's work experience to Pinterest, use it for its original purpose — for personal inspiration. Job searching can be disappointing and stressful. If you've just come back from a particularly bad job interview, or sent 10 applications with no response, head to your Pinterest board for images that help you smile, laugh and cheer up. Hilarious comics, adorable kittens inspirational quotes — whatever boosts your mood is fair game for pinning.
Using Pinterest in your job search shouldn't take up an inordinate amount of time, and it is one more tool to add to your job search arsenal. If you're a visual person who enjoys creative outlets, Pinterest can be a great way to let off some creative steam while winding your way through a job search. And it just might help you on your way.
Do you think a Pinterest resume can be effective? Why or why not? We'd love to hear in the comments.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
- Social Media Manager at Shore Fire Media in New York
- Digital Media Planner at Blueye Creative in Chicago
- Technical Architect at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
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