Job Hunting 2.0

by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

One person “is paying it forward while seeking work.” Another is an MBA & Telecom Engineer who “seeks transition to a technology mgmt position – product planning/consulting.” Someone else has a “Controller Opportunity in Baton Rouge.” Yet another is “looking for a mentor in DC area, prefer female that works in marketing.”

Who are these people? They are the new job seekers and they have swapped Chamber of Commerce lunches and a rolodex of established contacts for Twitter and a network of complete strangers. Meet the job angels.

Job Angels is an organization that was started by Mark Stelzner, the founder of Inflexion Advisors, a consulting firm offering financial, operational, marketing, market development and organizational services to public and private companies.

An active networker, Mark had approximately 700 followers on the social media site Twitter, many of them in the human resources industry. One day this past January, Mark sent this tweet, “Was thinking that if each of us helped just 1 person find a job, we could start making a dent in unemployment. You game?” That was the beginning of Job Angels. Several months later, Job Angels has 4,667 followers on Twitter, 1,454 members on Facebook and 189 more on LinkedIn.

Job Angels’ mission is to help bring people together for a single goal: to help just one person find gainful employment. That person can be a friend, a family member, a colleague or a complete stranger. Individual job angels help by spreading the word among their network regarding other job seekers’ career interests, by offering advice, critiquing resumes and helping any other way they can.

Michelle* is a good example of how Job Angels works. Michelle found employment through Job Angels and then turned around and helped another user find a job in a law firm earlier this year.

“I was fortunate enough to find my dream job after being laid off in December,” says the user Michelle assisted.

“Michelle was absolutely instrumental in helping me find and get the job I have now. She sent me the job posting, helped me edit my resume, and served as an excellent reference. In these times, there are so few jobs out there, not enough jobs for the number of people looking for one.”
Says Michelle, “My experience with Job Angels has been truly unique. A friend turned me on to the concept which got me thinking about how I can really try to use my network of people to help those looking for work.

“I was laid off at the end of 2008 along with half of my company,” she continues, “Since then, I’ve rewritten resumes, helped connect people with jobs I hear about, and just generally tried to encourage others on their search…I understand that one person is employed as a result of a posting I sent, one person has an interview for a position I recommended to her, six people have brand new resumes that really make their skills and experience shine, and another person is already in my sights.”

Unfortunately, it takes an economic crisis to remind us what we knew all along: that it only takes one person to make a difference and that there are really no strangers, that we are all in this together and job angels are everywhere. And it will teach us things we didn’t know. It will teach us that there is more to social media than pictures of college keg parties, top 25 lists and useless tweets. We will learn that social media has indeed changed the way we live and work forever.

* Quotes were provided by Job Angels