Social sleuthing: 10 job hunting giveaways

More than a fifth of people in my LinkedIn network moved jobs last year according to an email that I received from the network this week. But you don’t have to wait for updates from LinkedIn to figure out if your contacts are hunting for a new challenge in 2013.

Having been through the process myself of job hunting myself last year I’m acutely aware of how difficult it is to cover your tracks online.

There’s a paradox at play: job hunters need to build their social capital but they also need to remain professional and hold down their existing role.

It’s a topic that I have discussed with my Twitter network in the last week.

Here are ten online job hunting giveaways and some suggestions for covering up your tracks.

1. LinkedIn is the primary platform for managing your profession identity and building and engaging with your professional network so it’s no surprise that it is the primary focus of the job hunter’s attention. I received a top tip from a recruiter who asked to remain unnamed; if you want to avoid being spotted turn off network updates.
2. Watch out for new relationships being formed across the industry via LinkedIn and Twitter. Social networks democratise communication. Students can reach out to CEOs across the industry. Whether a conversation develops depends on the quality of the discourse.
3. There’s no giveaway of a job hunter more obvious than a blog. Anyone that blogs on behalf of a company will slow down and eventually stop when they are job hunting. It’s tough to keep up the motivation.
4. It’s an entirely different story for personal blogs. New blogs are launched and blogs that have remained dormant will kick into life with renewed vigor. Guest posts are also a sign of someone seeking to build their online profile.
5. Econsultancy trainer Michelle Goodall (@greenwellys) suggested that people signing up to Google+ was a dead giveaway. People typically investigate new technology when they are looking for a job to ensure that they look smart in interviews.
6. Tarting up profile images so that they look more professional marks outs a job hunter, reckons Mark Pinsent (@markpinsent). Other signals, according to Mark, include an increase in online activity generally and an overall improvement in the intelligence of updates.
7. Following multiple recruitment agencies is the equivalent of flicking to the recruitment pages of PR Week when it lands and marks out a job hunter according to Mike Palmer (@mikedpalmer).
8. Piling into a variety of social networks such as FourSquare, Instagram, Pinterest, TripAdvisor, and YouTube shows a level of social media proficiency and enables even a notice to appear credible in the early stages of an interview process.
9. Separating personal and professional profile is a tactic increasingly used by job hunters for many of the reasons disclosed already.
10. I’ll leave the last word to my old mate and former colleague Steve Earl (@mynameisearl). He reckons that the biggest clue to job hunting is teaming up with a mate and writing a book. I have no idea what he means.

I have no doubt that you’ll have ideas of your own. I look forward to your comments. It might even help someone find a job.