Micro blogs now a choice in job hunt

Putting your unique resume online to interact with head hunters and managers may get you closer to your goal, but it takes patience, Xu Lin finds out.

Like many people of her age, Zhou Meng, who is 22 and a recent university graduate, likes using her micro blog to record her daily life and communicate with others, but, it had never occurred to her that she might also use it to hunt for a job. Then came the inspiration, from people who were posting their resumes on Sina Weibo, and she decided to follow suit, in the hope of getting more people to see her work and even make some suggestions. So, Zhou got her resume together in a well-organized way, with all the information on her education, background, work experience and design work highlighted by a pretty graphic illustration skillfully designed to showcase her person and style, but still wasn't so sure.

She was looking for work as a user-interface designer, but, even though she majored in editing and publishing at South China University of Technology, she never studied design in class and was "self-taught and not sure about my professional level".

When Zhou found her resume was reposted 128 times in just four days since March 22, she was surprised. In her words, "I'm amazed that so many people support me and it really encouraged me. Now I know that I can succeed as long as I work hard."

Around seven or eight companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou showed an interest, so she's still waiting for further word.

In fact, more young people are now looking for jobs on micro blogs, by using some astonishingly creative, eye-catching resumes. And, in response, some companies have also started opening micro blog accounts to look for employees.

The CEO of Sina.com, Cao Guowei, announced in February that Sina Weibo had 503 million registered users by December.

Huang Lijun, 31, a senior member of the Teamtop Training Institute, in Guangzhou, says that the micro blog boom makes contacting human resources managers in various fields a lot easier, and they can provide the latest hiring information and even inspire applicants by interacting online.

In support of this, Zhang Jie, a supervisor at Ctrip.com International Ltd, China's largest online travel agency, says, "In traditional hiring, corporations have to sit around waiting passively for applications. But, with the micro blog, we can communicate with them directly and promote our position at the same time."

Zhang goes on to explain, "Hiring is becoming more like sales, the only difference being to promote a product or a corporation. So, we have to do it many ways, the same as we do with sales. The micro blog has a huge number of users. How could we ignore it?"

Zhang began posting Ctrip's job information and popular career topics on their official job account in February and some applicants sent their resumes via a micro blog message, and he in turn recommends suitable positions for them.

In commenting on this, Teamtop's Huang says, "The microresume has great potential because few people are using it so young people can show their talents in a fresh way," adding, "Anything that is rare is precious. If an HR representative sees a micro blog resume, he or she will definitely take note of it. If there are hundreds of these resumes, HR people prefer reading those applications in their e-mails."

He himself spends about two hours on his public service micro blog to repost and provide career tips for new graduates as well as explaining job-hunting and interviewing skills, career planning, and office etiquette.

He only responds to resumes that are worth commenting on because he wants others to brush up on their skills in making a resume. Other netizens have been reposting resumes to help young people land a good job.

Huang says he believes the microresume's disadvantage is that it is so scattered. So each one needs to draw attention immediately, the same as a traditional resume.

"The response time on microresumes is fast and for those that I've reposted, there are interview opportunities," he says, noting that, in addition, human resource personnel often read the person's micro blog, which reflects their personality. So, it's a good idea to open an exclusive account to update the resumes, career ideas, and job feelings. This account could be the best resume.

However, there's still a long way to go before the microresume goes mainstream. According to Zhang, if a company has to search for resumes on micro blogs, it's often for the following reasons: they're looking for a talent that's popular but difficult to track; they have few applicants because they're not famous; or the need isn't that urgent.

Meanwhile, Zhou is also looking for jobs the old-fashioned way, so she can apply to a company where she'd really like to work and because the odds are higher.

Huang concludes that, "It's better to have a micro blog platform for hiring so that it's convenient to search for jobs and talented people."

Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn.