Dave Cutler is trying to find a job. He’s also trying to break into the social media business. So it made perfect sense for him to launch his job search with an all-out social media blitz.
He created a website, hiredavecutler.com. He started blogging and tweeting about social media-related news, including references and links to his job search. He made a video resume, set up a YouTube channel, launched Dave Cutler’s Job Search Foursquare venue, and even created a Dave Cutler smartphone app.
“It’s an easy way to cast as wide a net as possible,’’ he said. “You can reach a lot more eyeballs through social media than you can through reaching out to people on a one-on-one basis.’’
In a job market crowded with talented people, resumes and cover letters just don’t cut it anymore. As almost any recruiter, career coach, and human resources specialist will tell you, effective job searches have become marketing campaigns, and social media, as Cutler shows, provide the tools to promote the product: the job candidate.
Social media can increase the odds of getting noticed in the game of “resume roulette’’ that hiring managers play when sorting through endless job applications, said Art Papas, chief executive of the Boston recruitment software company Bullhorn. Employers, he added, are starting to shift their focus from job sites like Monster and CareerBuilder to sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
“If you’re looking for a job, you’ve got to be serious about social media - it’s one of the best ways to cut through the clutter,’’ Pappas said. “Every company we work with, social media is top of their mind.’’
Cutler, 34, of Waltham, sees his efforts not only as a way to stand out, but also increase the odds - as often happens - that a chance meeting can lead to a job. Think of it like a virtual cocktail hour.
“You’re sending out resumes, you’re beating the pavement, you’re networking,’’ Cutler said, “And then you’re at a wedding and you’re at the bar getting a drink and you strike up a conversation with somebody and they say, ‘What do you do?’ and you say, “I’m looking for a job in XYZ,’ and it turns out they know of an opportunity, and that’s how you get the job.’’
Cutler started his social media frenzy a year ago after getting laid off as a graphics production manager at a health care research firm in Burlington. Unemployment, he decided, was the right time to pursue a new field.
He enrolled in a weeklong “mini MBA’’ program in social media marketing at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and then immersed himself in Boston’s social media scene - going to networking events, reading articles, attending panels, and watching webinars about the latest developments in the field.