How to Use Twitter to Find a Job

I am not sure if I have discussed this topic yet or not, but I know that using twitter to post and find jobs is a fast growing trend. I have recently read the book Breaking Into the Game Industry, by Brenda Brathwaite. In it, she mentions that she likes to post job listings for her indie dev studio by using twitter. It is cheap for the company and is quick to get responses as most people own a twitter account. There is a popular hashtag named #gamejobs, where you can find loads of jobs being posted for developers of all disciplines. There is naturally a trend for the positions to be with independent/social game developers, since they are free to list and smaller developers tend to follow the new technology and trends. This is great for you because people who do not know about the Twitter job market will not be able to apply and thus you have less competition than, say, going the predictable route and finding a job listing through gamasutra.com or LinkedIn.com.

There are a few more searches that you can do to find jobs, but I honestly think that the best results will be by using the #gamejobs hashtag. Here are some other search strings you can use to find job opportunities (so if you're interested in a temporary part-time job, this will be super-helpful):

-Now hiring
-#job
-Now hiring #job [position name] near:[city name]  (ex: "Now hiring #job designer near:San Francisco" This will show you listings only for that specific position and near the city you want to search in. This is the best way to go, as you will not want to be getting hired just anywhere. Although, in video games, the number of big development hub cities is limited so there won't be much chance of having to move to some unknown city as a sacrifice for work.)
-#tweetmyjobs [position name] (ex: #tweetmyjobs programmer)
-"looking to hire"
-"DM me" (means Direct message me; you know it will be something important)
-"my company" "looking for"
-"send me your resume"

As you can tell, there are a wealth of strategies and filters you can use to utilize Twitter as a job search tool. I would highly recommend using it yourself and if you are able to find a job yourself using this tactic, let me know about it!

-Ken