My colleague, Sarah Milstein, just wrote a book on Twitter (conveniently called “The Twitter Book”). Before her book came out, I liked to think of Sarah as my own private Twitter tutor. She was the 21st user of the service and tried to get me interested in it back in 2006. I resisted. I couldn’t see why I’d want yet another communication tool in my already over-communicated life. Once I got started though, I had a fairly typical Twitter path, moving from resistance to hooked in a matter of weeks. I recently read that Twitter is a little like coffee. It tastes awful at first, but then suddenly you’re addicted. (Anyone know where I read this so I can give credit?)

I asked Sarah to collaborate with me on a post about five ways to use Twitter in your career. If you’ve never even visited Twitter.com, this is a good primer on how to set up an account and get started. If you’re already on the service, but still don’t really get it, read this.

And now, our five tips:

Keep up with industry news. Follow thought leaders and/or people who post links to new ideas in your field. To find people in your sector, try tools like MrTweet.com and wefollow.com, which organize Twitter users by category. Once you’ve followed a few smart, relevant people, you’ll have created a customized news feed of headlines that interest you. {Read the rest at Yahoo!}

Now that so much of the job search process happens online, the most common complaint I hear about is the “black hole” — that mysterious place to which resumes seem to travel from the moment an applicant hits the “send” key. If you’re involved in a job search where you feel like you repeatedly send out resumes in response to ads and rarely hear back, then it might be time for some new online search techniques. Try these 5 tricks to shake things up:

Answer questions on Linkedin
Your strongest chance of being hired is to find ways to show off your expertise and build relationships in your field. One easy way to do this is to troll the “Answers” section on LinkedIn and start responding to questions where you think you can be helpful. People whose answers get high ratings show up on a list of experts. Nabbing one of those spots is a terrific way to ensure that people using the site to fill a position will find your profile. {Read the rest at Yahoo!}

Personal branding has been one of the hottest buzz phrases ever since Tom Peters wrote a Fast Company article way back in 1997 that turned into the book, The Brand Called You. The notion is that individuals are all brands — much like our running shoes and kitchen appliances (though some of us are clearly more running shoe than refrigerator). And from that flows that logic that we all need to cultivate and nurture our brands so they thrive and prosper just as the brands managed by big business.

There’s a new kid on the personal branding block — Dan Schawbel — and he’s taken Peters’ principles to their next logical incarnation — branding in the social media age. I call him a “kid” because at 25, he is also part of the new generation of Internet wunderkinds who have become so adept at spreading their ideas online that they write their first books and hit the morning show circuit when barely out of college.

Now that we are all publishers — writing personal blogs, answering questions on LinkedIn, updating our status on Facebook or Twitter — Schawbel has a message that is very much of the moment. Which is that we need to harness these tools in order to convey our personal brand to the world. And once we do that, we will not only find career opportunities, but they will find us. (Read the rest at Yahoo!)

While headlines continue to report on the grim state of the job market, people are getting hired every day. This ongoing series will bring you snapshots of who’s getting hired now with the back-stories of how they’re snagging the jobs.

This week’s job successes include a nonprofit manager who made a move when it seemed like no one was hiring, an engineer who tweeted his way to a new gig, and an event planner who created a full-time position out of two part-time jobs to bring in extra cash during her slow season.

Dan Zarrella, Boston, Mass – From one job in online marketing to another position within the same industry.

Time searching: About a month

Techniques: Enhancing and promoting his “personal brand.” Networking on Twitter.

His story: When Zarella got laid off in December from a position at an online marketing firm, he took an approach that is becoming increasingly common — he immediately worked on enhancing his personal brand and made himself more known in the community where he wanted to find his next job. (For a quickie course on personal branding, read Dan Schawbel’s excellent new book, “Me 2.0″) He tells his job search story — on the blog of HubSpot.com, where he eventually got hired.  Even before he lost his job, Zarrella had the foundations of a good personal brand in place. He already had a personal blog, on which he identifies himself with the clever moniker “The Social Media and Viral Marketing Scientist.” He also used the extra time he had to develop some online tools related to Twitter, the microblogging site that is an essential networking zone for people in technology-related businesses. “Rather than trying to interrupt people in my space with advertisements about myself, I created things that people wanted to use and let them come to me,” he wrote about the experience.  He also posted on Twitter that he was looking for a new job and asked people who was hiring in the Boston area. A few people responded to his messages and directed him to Hubspot, where he saw that there were openings and submitted his resume according to the usual procedures. {Read the rest at Yahoo!}

I just returned from a conference that was both stimulating and scary. At a gathering where premier journalists typically congregate to talk about craft and their commitment to accurately and artfully write and report true stories, most of the talk at the bar was about the carnage in the media industry. While I was there to speak about career advice, I wasn’t immune to the concern. Last year I lost a regular gig blogging for the New York Times with very little notice. 

But unlike most journalists who are panicking about what they’d do next if they lost a steady paycheck, I quickly replaced that work with high quality work that I enjoy–coaching other writers, teaching, and public speaking. As an experienced freelancer, I also knew how to find writing opportunities even in a shrinking market. {Read the rest at Yahoo!}

I’ve just returned from the annual Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference at Harvard where the mood was a mix of anxiety and inspiration. The anxiety came from the many staffers who had recently lost jobs or were preparing for that possibility. The inspiration came from the heady conversations about craft and narrative that typically characterize this gathering of master storytellers and those aspiring to that title.

Since this was a conference where almost all the attendees and speakers were journalists, and where people were live blogging and tweeting, there are plenty of vivid recaps of the event. So I’ll spare you the full-blown summary.

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I’m starting a new interview series where I’ll be catching up with people at various stages of a career transition or reinvention. In some cases, the subjects will be folks I’ve profiled before, as is the case with my first guest, Jonathan Fields. I met Jonathan in the Fall of 2001 when I interviewed him for this New York Times article on businesses that were thriving in post-9/11 New York City. At that time, Jonathan had recently left a position as an associate with Debevoise and Plimpton to open Sonic Yoga, a yoga studio in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen.

In 2003, I wrote a follow-up story on him for the Times, this time focusing on Jonathan’s path from corporate lawyer to entrepreneurial yogi.

Jonathan is in the midst of yet another identity shift as he has just published his first book, Career Renegade, which is steadily climbing the Amazon rankings.
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A conversation with Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, blogger, speaker and author, about his new book, "Reality Check."

A conversation with Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, blogger, speaker and author, about his new book, "Reality Check."

A guest post by Sarah Milstein on five ways to use Twitter, an increasingly popular online messaging service, at work.