How to leverage the hottest social network for your job search.
Although it was founded in 2008, it was really in 2010-11 that Pinterest took off and became a favorite social network of tens of millions of people, especially in the US.
Once there’s such a critical mass of people on a social network, it becomes natural that some would use it to find a job.
Here’s how they’re doing it.
Free bonus: Download a spreadsheet with the top 100 Pinterest job search boards for 2018 including contact information for many of the board owners.
28 Job Search Experts’ “Pinsights”
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Jessica Merrell, blogging4jobs: Create boards with information worth sharing. most important is the board about you. |
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Dorlee M, dorleem: Pinterest can be a great way to conduct research on a company of interest (to see how they present themselves, what is important to them, what is their company culture) as well as an informal way to present who you are, what your interests are and how you are likely to represent your future employer on duty and off duty. |
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Rosa Vargas, CareerSteering: Be selective as to what you pin. Your pinning must reinforce your brand. |
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Miriam Salpeter, miriamsalpeter: Don’t underestimate opportunities to connect with companies, potential colleagues and experts via Pinterest. Use Pinterest to learn information you may not otherwise know and be sure to leverage it to your advantage! |
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Sital Ruparelia, sitalr: 1. Showcase portfolio of work achievements 2. Vision boards with images/quotes to inspire |
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Dawn Bugni, dawnbugni: As with any social media site, it’s important to engage. Follow companies of interest. Post info that supports your career expertise and gives insight into the whole person. Above all, remember there are no privacy settings. Anything liked or posted ties directly back to you. Pin wisely. |
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Julie Walraven, juliewalraven: Make sure everything you put there represents the you that you would share with an employer. |
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Gayle Howard, gaylemhoward: Search for jobs, job resources or for career wisdom and resources. |
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Jason Alba, JibberJobber: LOL I tell job seekers to stay away from Pinterest… for now. Unless you are in certain industries or professions, it’s a waste of time. |
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Tory Johnson, toryjohnson: job searching is personal. Connect on mutual interests. Showcase your personality on your boards. Demo expertise in social |
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Hannah Morgan, careersherpa: Pin your brand in pictures and words! Include links to professional and not-too-personal interests.Think in terms of key words and be active. FYI…wrote a post about what pinterest says about you |
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Chandlee Bryan, bestfitforward: Write an anecdotal resume that tells your career story |
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Jason Seiden, jasonseiden: Be profersonal–mix some personality into your professional ambitions! |
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Jennifer McClure, jhjmcclure: create a visual resume via Pinterest to share! |
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Wendy Terwelp, knocks.com: Whatever is put online should be on brand for you and your career goals – beyond the job search. Jobvite survey last year stated 89% of recruiters hire through social media. Pinterest is new. Growing fast. Can impact Google search results. |
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Alison Doyle, alisonmdoyle: Show off your taste in peer work, pin infographics related to your specialty, and create a base of links to great articles. More Pinterest job seeker tips |
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Melissa Cooley, thejobquest: Choose items that reflect professional POVs. You can have boards/pins of a personal nature, but too much of that doesn’t .get your message across. Your brand gets lost in the shuffle as a result. |
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Susan Strayer, evvivabrands: As a job seeker, use Pinterest to learn more about brands you’re interested in. We showcase our team and brand personality. |
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Joshua Waldman, joshuawaldman: Publish good stuff 🙂 |
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Cyndy Trivella, cyndytrivella: Great opportunity for creative types to connect & showcase their work. |
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Margo Rose, hrmargo: Create an infographic resume & post it there. |
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Mark Anthony Dyson, markadyson: A quote from an interview that a job seeker had from a thought leader in his or her field is impressive to employers i.e. thought leaders in the job seeker’s industry, along with an image that captures the essence of the quote. |
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Neal Schaffer, nealschaffer: Pin websites you regularly read to keep up on your industry or profession – impress hiring manager & become a resource. |
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Karen Siwak, karensiwak: If you are a visual thinker Pinterest can be useful, but don’t lose sight of the purpose behind the pictures. |
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Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, valueintowords: Pinterest is professional, light-hearted fun. Show spirit, enthusiasm and energy with your pin imagery. Beware of over-pinning; behave organically and naturally, yet strategically. Think before you publish. |
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Heather Coleman Voss, heatherecoleman: My favorite tip is to create boards that reflect your career interests and add value. Add a board that incorporates your own blog posts, too. |
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Jennifer Scott, hireeffect: Use boards to help demonstrate who you are to a potential employer. Include work and professional interests. and be sure to include key words in the pin descriptions. |
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Jacob Share, jacobshare: Create pin boards that show off your work portfolio, reflect your expertise and let you network with similar people & company reps. |
Here's a longer take:
Free BonusDownload a sortable spreadsheet of the most popular Pinterest job search boards this year, including contact information for many of the board owners so you can ask them about their Pinterest branding success.
Click the image below to get access to the top 100 Pinterest job search boards for 2018:
JobMob Insiders can get this free bonus and other exclusive content in the JobMob Insider Bonuses area. Join now, it's free!
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Funny.
I would have said:
“Stay Off Pinterest”
Average times on Pinterest doing nothing that will REALLY help your JOB Search: Very High
Seriously, unless you are a designer, a cartoonist, an info graphic maker or a cake baker, you need to steer clear of this pond. Better ponds to fish in??
Linkedin, Google Search, Facebook (yes – Facebook), Niche sites, etc.
Personally, I agree to stay off Pinterest for jobseekers. There are more effective ways to spend your time when looking for a job! Pinterest is great for other activities, like finding a great recipe or getting an arts & crafts idea, but looking for a job there seems like a waste of time.
I agree. Pinterest is for shopping, cooking or decorating not for job searching.
I agree with Peggy! It’s hard for me to stay focused when On Pinterest. And I am definitely not a cartoonist.
I agree, Pinterest is more for finding cute crafts to do or recipes to try out. Don’t get me wrong it’s fun to spend time looking throughs puns but as far as the job search goes I think it would be a waste of time.
I would agree with Peggy McKee. There ARE much more better sites to help people in their Job Search. Linkedin and Facebook are on the top of my list, but definitely not Pinterest.
I’ve seen a job seeker used Pinterest as her resume to apply for a creative position with Pinterest. That, I think will work but other than that, if you’re applying for a less creative role it would be hard to get the attention of the employer if you use Pinterest in your job search or as your online resume. The fact being that Pinterest is possibly managed by someone from the company’s creatives and not the hiring manager.
You hit it Peggy McKee! Truly Pinterest isnt the best place to look for a job. Not at all. I would still go to other professional’s social networking sites. Pinterest for me is nothing more like a photosharing site now. Well, when they started and promoting that Pinterest was a dofollow site, that’s when they get those lots of traffic from SEO people. But now that Pinterest becomes nofollow, the downfall is greatly noticable.
I too agree with Peggy….Linkedin, Google Search, and Facebook are my top priority, for any kind of job search or candidate search.
Totally agree with Ms. McKee, Pinterest is more for finding cute crafts and creations.
LinkedIn is most powerfull tool for searching Job’s and candidates search and I totally agree with Peggy, we can also do Job discussion part on LinkedIn.There are many social networking sites Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter but LinkedIn is most powerfull.
I agree with Peggy. Pinterest is not meant for job seeking. For Job seeking Linkedin, Facebook, Google search are best!
I too think “Pinterest” is waste of time for search ing jobs there are many good job boards for searching jobs..I agree with Peggy.
I Agree with Peggy, I always give priority to Linkedin, Google Search for job search. Linkedin is best and it’s like all in one site.
Definitely agree with peggy, through pinterest we can “pin” images, videos and other objects to our pinboard, but for any kind of job search I would definitely prefer Linkedin, Facebook, Google and other various job boards.
I disagree with Peggy: the contributors laid out perfectly sensible advice on leveraging Pinterest, esp the points about researching prospective employers and using it to enhance one’s brand.
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Ed- Bravo! Gutsy move to go on against the comment tide.
Peggy and everyone else- As I just commented to Jason Alba on his blog post about this blog post:
I totally agree with Ms.Peggy McKee and Zanetta, there is NO comparision betn Pinterest and other Job related sites and I strongly prefers Linkedin, Google, Facebook and other JobBoards for Jobs n related discussions.
It was interesting to read the comments and to see many names that I both admire and respect in the comment stream, but on this one I have to say that there are several key points that folks seem to be missing.
* Pinterest is an excellent way to study corporate culture for a job seeker. If you don’t fit the culture, I don’t care how much you rock your profession, you are never going to excel on the same level. You see far more of the internal workings of a company on Pinterest than on LinkedIN, Twitter or even Facebook.
* Wendy’s comment states that 89% of recruiters use Social Media for finding job candidates. Other statistics state that 87% of employers and recruiters do a Google search on their prospective candidates prior to interviewing them. If you have a Pinterest account that skews to your career interests, you have one more positive path for prospective employers to find you.
* If you are in the creative field, this is a no brainer, however, take a stroll through Pinterest and you will find nearly every brand imaginable represented.
* If you are a female, this is a great place to connect with your fellow audience as over 80% of the users of Pinterest are female. As a person who works directly with many professional women, I am finding that many of them are forming stronger bonds via Pinterest than other social networking sites. We all know that relationships lead to interviews which lead to jobs.
Bottom line is that finding a new job is a job in itself; you have to put in the work. Nothing compares to LinkedIn and niche sites for professional networking. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ are all high ranking on my radar screen; however, for the few extra hours it will take you to set up a Pinterest account, create a few boards, and brand yourself for an employer, it is more than worth the time. Besides, you might find the perfect appetizer to make for that party next Friday.
Patti- your comment is a great complement to the article, thanks for that.
I agree with the comments above who say Pinterest is not for job seeking (even not by design). If one want to use a social site for this purpose, Linkedin suits much more. However, even Linkedin cannot replace a good resume. There are so many excellent advice how to write a real fine one (e.g.: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/04/13/how-to-make-your-resume-last-longer-than-6-seconds/
– it might help to some)! Why not write one yourself? But that’s just my personal opinion based on experiences.
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Amazing. I never considered Pinterest as a job search tool