NEW YEAR, NEW JOB: Havok on harnessing social media

Every day in January we’re helping job-hunters with advice and tips from the industry’s finest HR and recruitment execs on a range of topics.

This morning we bring you a guide to harnessing the immense – if sometimes bewildering – potential of social media to expand your industry profile and secure you a new job, with essential tips from Havok’s technical recruiter James Byrne.

Havok’s tips for harnessing social media to get a job

• Build a strong LinkedIn profile highlighting your technical skills and project experience.
• Connect in with in-house recruiters in studios. Build up your list of connections.
• Follow companies on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Join LinkedIn Technical or Networking groups in your field. Participate in discussion groups in your area; become known as an expert in your area.
• Utilise the social networking sites to determine whether you have a connection within an organisation of interest – applications submitted by an existing employee may be likely to receive a little more attention than a general application. Similarly if a company offers an internal referral scheme for staff, this could be a good way to have someone in your network help ‘sell’ you to the prospective employer.
• Use social media to ask people in your network to recommend excellent recruiters who have credibility within the industry and who may be able to help you find the right job for you.

Our daily ‘New Year, New Jobs’ series of articles are extracted from the forthcoming February issue of Develop magazine, which boasts an essential compendium of advice, tips and tricks on getting a new job and improving your employment prospects. The same issue will bring you all the results from our sweeping games industry Salary Survey. Check back with Develop Online every day this month for more.

To find out more about advertising opportunities in February’s Develop contact Alex.Boucher@intentmedia.co.uk or call him on +44 (0) 1992 535 646.