Resumes and interviews: Using Google and social networking to your advantage
So you got the interview. Great!
Psst – who’s it with?
What…you don’t know? Uh-oh.
These days, you need every advantage you can get. So when you get the request to set the date and time of the interview, ask the name – and get the spelling right – of the person(s) who’ll be interviewing you.
Now you’ve got your homework to do. Head on over to Google and find out everything you can about your interviewer. You never know what random fact is going to come in handy, as long as it can be casually slipped into conversation.
Google’s only your first stop, though. Next up is LinkedIn, and Facebook right after that. You’re looking for:
1) Things you have in common…
2) Things about his or her career journey you’d like to emulate
3) History in the industry you’d like to learn more about
4) Knowledge in the profession you’d like to gain yourself
5) Trade groups and other associations that may be relevant for your job search – whether you land this job, they turn you down, or you turn them down
Is all of this research overkill? On the one hand, maybe. People have been landing executive positions for hundreds of years without needing the likes of Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook for their preparation.
But since you have the tools at your disposal, why wouldn’t you use them?
Even if it’s just to be able to write a more personal thank you note after the interview, take twenty minutes out of your day to do a little research. With everything I keep hearing about the tough job search situation, all I can think is that every little edge you can get is gonna help.
(Heck, while you’re at it, ask what kind of interview style they use. If they won’t tell you, all you can do is prepare as best you can, which we’ve covered at length in other posts.)
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If you can I would also suggest looking at what people your interviewer is connected to. You never know, you may already be in contact with some of their connections. If you are on that person’s good side that will give a great topic to talk about and the common friend should give you a positive reference.
I think its a good idea to use technology but I still think the good old resume is needed first before any job search. I tried to find a job but due to an outdated badly formatted resume only got one response from 100 resumes sent out. I then had a look around the web and used a resume writing site – resumebuilder4u.com I think – which helping me organise and format the site using a set of templates – the great thing is that I can change and produce my resume as many times as I want. The odds of my interviews went up to about 1 in 3 – I realised I approached it all wrong.
Thanks for the comment, Patrick!
I think they go hand in hand – as you pointed out, a resume is definitely still needed, and must be done right. The technology aspect is meant to put a finer point on the search, and provide an additional competitive advantage.
[...] response to my recent post on using Google and social networking sites to your advantage in your resume and interview process, I received this comment from Patrick: I [...]
[...] Do your research. I’ve previously written about using Google and social networking sites to your competitive advantage. I’ve also talked about researching the target company, and coming prepared with a few strong [...]