Danny Cox is: The PRospective Employee

Well, the stage is set. You remember the post about using Twitter to find a job? Perhaps that was a misnomer. Perhaps the post should have been titled, Tweeting to land an interview because my friends, I have done just that.

On December 11, 2009, I, Danny Cox, will complete my first interview with a Chicago agency. Which agency you ask? The same one that opened my eyes to the possibility of social media as the great equalizer, spanning great distances and formalities and granting the user nearly magical direct access with people who have the ability to make a difference: Weber Shandwick in Chicago.

A note: the greatest utility of social media is not necessarily its ability to connect you with the one person who has  the ability to make the difference in getting you an interview. Rather, its best function is in helping you build your own mini-network of those who have the insight, knowledge, and existing connections to put you in the right place at the right time. Without everyone else’s help along the way, I don’t think this would have ever come to be, and for that I am truly thankful. As I’ve learned over the past few weeks, the buzz-phrase of the young professional in Public Relations is to “Pay it forward.”

Just like Morpheus could only show Neo the door, if you use it well social media can only put your foot in it, you have to show up and show that you’re worthy of letting in. But it can get that foot in the door, no postage on a shoe necessary.

Have you used social media to advance your career? Any tips on how to nail the interview? What other tactics do you use when job-searching?