For me, Twitter is rarely a black hole.
Seriously.
Because, while I don’t do a ton of sourcing these days, I do make sure to follow my clients and their leaders. When there’s a conference, I follow hashtags, and guess what they lead me to?
If you guessed the candidate mother load, you are correct.
My largest client right now is an AWESOME DevOps technology start-up out of Seattle. Our incredible technology has DevOps engineers extremely excited about the potential for true cloud-native development in a language-agnostic environment. Funnily enough, a lot of these engineers aren’t on Linkedin. They stick to their developer communities to avoid people like me. So, how do I find and engage them? I go to where they dwell…places like GitHub, HackerRank and, for this article, Twitter.
A few weeks ago, I saw a Tweet that said: “Absolutely loving @PulumiCorp right now.”
Reach Out And Connect
I looked at that person’s profile (both on Twitter and Linkedin), found their email address (see this article for email sleuth tips), reached out, and the rest is history….If I couldn’t have found the email, I would have just direct messaged them on Twitter. It’s private, and people respond.
When someone tweets that they are looking for a job, you can like their tweet and send a direct message (DM), respond saying you will message them, or reach out. I’ve heard back from every person who I have seen looking- they are so grateful! And, even if it doesn’t work out, it a wonderful way to boost someone up when they are starting a job search. It’s like making an online dating profile after a tough breakup- sometimes it’s just nice to be wanted, even if it’s not by the right person.
#Quietthenoice #Findyourpeople
Sometimes people will have discussions around their technologies on Twitter. What a great way to find the people talking about a language than looking up hashtags like #typescript #golang or #Java!?!
Almost every conference has its hashtag (#sourcecon2020 anyone???). Know your hiring team is going to a conference? Learn the hashtag and sort through people that way. You know what they say about birds of a feather….well, they flock to the same hashtags. If I were looking for an awesome sourcer, I’d get on Twitter and see who was tweeting about #sourcecon. And, if it’s not Sourcecon time, I’d be looking at #recruiting, #sourcing, #techrecruiting #startuprecruiting….you get the idea. Play around with hashtags, and you won’t believe what you will find. For example, 2 of my clients right now are in the world of DevOps. If I look up #devops, there have been 60 tweets in the last HOUR…..
I can also go to the “people” tag on Twitter, and lo and behold #devops gives me 73 profiles with #devops in their descriptors. While some of these are companies, that’s ok because now those companies are at the top of my target list, and I can further search for people at those companies.
Remember, people often put their employer in their descriptor. #companyyouwanttopoachfrom, paired with #groupyouwanttopoachfrom is sure to find results.
You Might Like This
Don’t ignore that “You Might Like” column on your right. If you’re looking at a profile, it will also suggest similar profiles. Wait, you mean similar people to the one who I am targeting? Yes, please!!!
Linkedin is an excellent source of candidates and can be a great way to build your Rolodex, but you can’t be a one-trick pony. Many people have skeleton Linkedin profiles or none at all to avoid getting spammed. Luckily, you know they live in other places, and Twitter may be one of them.
What happened to that candidate I mentioned earlier? He made it to the final round, but ultimately the role we had in his geographic location didn’t align with his career goals. He’s still a major fan of our products, and we’re still a major fan of his.
You never know where a conversation or a tweet will lead, so hopefully, Twitter will become a regular tool in your bag of tricks.
Happy Hunting!