Getting your mitts all over the digital world is your best bet for standing out and creating an online presence that will make potential employers salivate all over your CV. Check out the following story from GoThinkBig on the barber who landed a job with his mad Instagram skills…
So how do you get a job without having to write a CV or a cover letter? Instagram, apparently.
A barber in America landed himself a new job purely off the strength of his use of hashtags and filters on Instagram – he even found out about the job through the photo sharing network.
Clark Walker was studying to be a doctor before he dropped out two years ago having realised it wasn’t his dream anymore. So he enrolled in barber school and started learning the trade. Within the first week he found out that many barbers were using Instagram to post pictures of their work and also to connect with other shops and pros across the world. So Clark started his own account. A few weeks later he uploaded his first client’s image.
The first picture didn’t receive an amazing response, a couple of likes and that’s it. But Clark was just getting started. He kept going, learning more about hashtags and finding other barbers to follow and interact with.
After finishing barber school, Clark started working in a shop in Utah but he carried on Instagramming. After about a year, he and his family decided to move to New York.
Coincidentally, around the same time, Fellow Barber, a barber shop in New York that Clark followed on Instagram, put an image up saying that they were hiring. “I commented on the photo and said I’d be moving to New York soon and was interested in working there,” Clark told Mashable. “They responded right away and told me to get in touch with them once I was in the city.”
A few weeks later, Clark and his family moved to New York City and he popped in to meet the staff at Fellow Barber. A few test haircuts and an informal interview later, and the job was his. “It was the easiest ‘interviewing’ process ever – it was essentially all through Instagram,” Clark says.
Make Instagram work for your job hunt
Obviously not all industries are going to be suited to a job hunt solely through Instagram (sorry aspiring nurses and doctors!). But for a lot of creative industries you could find that potential employers will be impressed by the work that you showcase on your Instagram profile. So here’s some tips on getting your work seen by the right people:
- Use hashtags - one of the best ways of making sure people are looking at your pictures is to make use of relevant hashtags. Obviously don’t overdo it, your whole caption does not need to be hashtagged as separate words.
- Follow other people in the same industry - if you want people to start following your feed, follow theirs first. A lot of people will check out who their new followers are and may even have a quick glance at your photos.
- Be an active follower - following someone in the same industry is great. Interacting with them is even better. Like their posts, comment on their pictures. Obviously don’t be a stalker, save the likes and comments to the photos that are relevant to your dream job – a restraining order is not going to help you get a job.
- Post fewer pictures of your food - it’s a bit of a cliché of Instagram that all anyone does is post pictures of what they’re eating. But if you want your Instagram work for your career, don’t clog it up with pictures of your lunch – unless food photography is what you want to get into.
If you liked this, have a look at…
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