T.A.P. Q#298 – Can I Network Via Blogs?

September 21, 2009 by sparktalk

Dear Experts,

Folks, between the past five days I have joined Twitter, joined Jobvana.com, and started following the CAREEREALISM blog.

Is there a way for me to network using all of these platforms? I am a Chef of thirty-five years and have been unemployed for twelve months.

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Here is how our T.A.P. experts answered this question:

Q#298 Yes. Connecting with people in your field and develop relationships. It won’t happen over night, but results will come. (@gradversity)

Technorati Tags: blog, C-Twips (Career Tips on Twitter!), career advice, career question, chef, networking, platforms, twelve months

Filed Under: T.A.P. Questions
Tagged: blog, C-Twips (Career Tips on Twitter!), career advice, career question, chef, networking, platforms, twelve months

Comments

juliaerickson

Great start! Also, LinkedIn will be invaluable in your search so join it and located former colleagues with whom you can network. On Twitter, search for people in your field to follow who probably follow back (you can tell if they have a similar # of people they follow as # of followers). Use hash tags (#) to find other chefs, foodservice industry people, restaurateurs, and the jobsearch community. Obviously, @careerealism has MANY great people and resources for you to access.

One critical thing to do is to make sure your resume is an effective marketing document. Does your resume highlight your accomplishments, e.g. how profitable your kitchens were? How many seats in your place of business? # of staff you supervised? Specials that were sold out? Food cost and labor cost controls implemented? Union staff or no? Are your certifications all up to date?

Improve your resume based on what you really want to do next. Have you identified the kind of challenges you want to work on at your next place of employment? Do you want a restaurant, hotel, chain, corporate dining, cafeteria, school, university, hospital or catering? Big, medium or small venue? Do you want to be Executive Chef or Chef de Cuisine? Lots of supervisory responsibility or more cooking tasks? What kind of work environment and culture is best for you? What's your "I can live with it and myself" compensation number, as well as your "I want to make" number?

Once you've gotten clear about exactly what you want, you can target your search to those places that meet your criteria. You can tailor your resume to include only those things you want to do again, as well as your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. It will be easier to network, too, because you can tell people what you're looking for - the kind of challenges and the skills you would bring to solving those challenges.

More networking ideas: post your resume on some of the hospitality websites, e.g. http://www.hcareers.com/. Search for keywords on Twitter and LinkedIn, such as "Chef" or company names like "Sodexo" and "Starwood." Look for local job search sites. Go to industry events on your own dime or see if you can volunteer at networking events so you can go and do a little bit of networking - as well as get volunteer experience on your resume.

I'm working with a chef right now and these are some of the strategies we've used. BTW, I was Executive Director of a hunger relief organization, City Harvest, for 11 years and got to know the NYC food industry extremely well. So some of my suggestions are based on that experience.

Good luck!