How Hashtags Can Help Your Job Search

Are you using hashtags to expedite your job hunt? Hashtags are a useful tool for networking, finding job opportunities, and sharing your own job search to get noticed by employers who are using social media to recruit.

How do hashtags work, and what’s the best way to use them? If you use platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you are probably familiar with hashtags. A hashtag is the pound sign (#) followed by a word or phrase.

Learn the do’s and don’ts of using hashtags to job search. If you use hashtags in a creative and thoughtful way, you can give your job search a boost and impress hiring managers.

Ways to Use Hashtags to Help Your Job Search

Learn About a Company

If you want to know more about what it is like working at a company, you can use hashtags to get insider information. Many companies have a hashtag that employees use to share stories about life at the company.

For example, Target launched a #TargetVolunteers hashtag to allow employees to share photos and information on their volunteering experiences. Searching this hashtag can help potential employees learn about how Target encourages employees to give back to local communities. If there is a company you are interested in working for, check to see if they have a company-wide hashtag.

Find Available Jobs

Many employers use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram to post jobs. Often, they will include various hashtags related to the position or the job search in these posts. Search on social media sites for particular hashtags related to job listings (including #jobs and #jobsearch).

You can also search for these hashtags on LinkedIn, which now has searchable hashtags. When employers post articles on LinkedIn about job openings, they sometimes use relevant hashtags.

To get more specific, you might search for exact job titles (#teachers or #teacherjobs) and locations (#NewYorkCity or #Ohio). Twitter also has a #HireFriday hashtag that some employers use. On Fridays, some companies will post job listings and include the #HireFriday hashtag.

Promote Your Job Search

Help recruiters find you on your social media and LinkedIn pages by using hashtags that promote your job search. For example, if you are posting something related to your job search (such as a message about your work experience, or a link to your resume), you can include a relevant hashtag, such as #jobhunt, #employment, or #resume.

How to Use Hashtags to Network

General Networking: Whether or not you are actively looking for a job, you can always use hashtags to find people in your industry to network with. First, you can use hashtags to participate in conversations related to your field. Look up key people in your field on social media and see what hashtags they use. When appropriate, include these same hashtags when you post things on social media that are related to your job search or your work. This is a great way to join an online conversation with people in your career network.

Helpful Conversations: You can use hashtags to converse with people in your field and find and participate in Twitter chats. Twitter chats are regular (usually weekly) conversations that take place on Twitter. Each chat is about a particular topic and is designated by a particular hashtag. By finding and participating in Twitter chats related to your industry, you can connect with people in your field.

Professional Events: Another way to use hashtags when networking is to use them when you attend a professional conference. Most conferences and networking events have a hashtag that you can use when posting pictures and sharing information about the event on social media. You can use the hashtag to share your thoughts on the conference, learn about conference events, and connect with other conference attendees.

Tips for Using Hashtags for Job Searching

Use hashtags that are already common. Don’t create new hashtags and hope that people start to use them. Make sure to use hashtags that are already popular among the groups you are interested in getting to know. To know which hashtags are popular, check out what influential people in your industry are using on their social media platforms. Ask colleagues which hashtags they use or follow, and whether they participate in any Twitter chats.

Be careful which hashtags you use. Similarly, make sure you use hashtags that are not only in use, but are used by people you want to be associated with.

For example, if you include the hashtag #hunt to try and convey that you are job searching, you will link your post with hunting enthusiasts rather than employment recruiters! Before adding a hashtag, do a quick search to see who else tends to use the hashtag.

Use hashtags to share professional content. Make sure that, when you include a hashtag related to your job search on a social media post, your post is professional. Do not include a hashtag like #jobsearching on a post about your pets, for example. Keep both your hashtags and your content professional.

Use hashtags sparingly. While hashtags are a useful new tool for job seeking, don’t go overboard. You don’t want to include dozens of hashtags in every LinkedIn article you post or every tweet you write. Select two or three hashtags that will be particularly useful for your specific job search needs. Similarly, remember to continue to use more traditional job search methods (such as using job search engines and participating in face-to-face networking events).

Best Hashtags for a Job Search

Here are some popular hashtags that you might consider either using in your own social media posts, or searching for on your various social media platforms.

Hashtags for Job Searching

• #Jobs
• #JobSearch
• #JobSearching
• #JobSearchTips
• #Resume
• #HireMe

Hashtags for Recruiting

• #JobOpening
• #Hiring
• #HiringNow
• #JoinOurTeam
• #NowHiring
• #Recruiting
• #Remote
• #RemoteJob
• #Employment

Hashtags for Career Advice

• #Careers
• #CareerSuccess
• #PersonalBranding
• #PersonalDevelopment
• #ResumeTips