Now THIS is Social Networking at its Finest

Brick Wall: A job seeker once again

I'm on the job hunt again.  Great changes are happening for Visible Vote, which I am not at liberty to disclose, but unfortunately these changes mean that I'm back on the market.  I will always be friends with the guys leading that company, and I can never thank them enough for the career highlights I had during my time with them.  Let's just say this...I've worked too hard to get to Chicago, and this is where I want to stay and build my career.

When I came to this realization, my emotions were all over the place.  "Am I really a job seeker AGAIN?!  Will people get the wrong idea about me and assume I hop from job to job?  What will people think?!"  This mindset got the better of me for a little while as I struggled to decide how to move forward with my job search while, honestly, I was embarrassed to be in this situation again.

Then, I took a chance.  I tweeted something directly to a potential employer, something I had never done before!  I knew that people would figure it out once they read my tweet, but I'd have to come clean some day.  After all, I have to use social media for my job search if I expect to land a position in social media marketing!  Within a few hours, I had a reply from the hiring manager herself, and we took the conversation offline from there.  My goal was to get noticed, and I achieved it!  That was step one for me.

For step two, without making any kind of formal announcement through social media, I decided to put something out there about an upcoming interview I had.  That was all.  Just a simple short line.  So I typed, and upon entering each letter I felt like I was about to place myself directly in front of the firing squad.  I was preparing for judgement and questions, and I envisioned the smirks on all those who had doubted that I could move to Chicago (in a recession) and start my career here.  And that is when I saw social networking at its finest...

The response to my status update was that of motivation and inspiration.  No questions.  No judgement.  No worries.  Just encouraging words from great people, words that I needed to hear at that time.  Seven "likes" and 21 comments. "Go get 'em!"  "Good luck! You'll do great!"  It was then that I realized that it was silly to be embarrassed.   Yes, I was back in the job search, but I'm still proud of who I am and what I've accomplished.  People find themselves in the job search for all kinds of reasons.  I'm lucky to have people in my life who will support me no matter what.  Thanks to social networking, I'm able to stay in touch with these people, and I hope to support them if any brick walls get in their way.

My brick wall didn't deal so much with social networking, or even how much I was revealing about myself online.  It was about being comfortable with who I am and where I am in my life.  Hello, I'm Jenny Weigle, and I'm a job seeker.  And, by the way, I'm a killer marketing and social media strategist as well.