Job Hunting With Pinterest: Pros and Cons

Social media site Pinterest has exploded in popularity over the past six months, winning favor with everyone from brides-to-be and casual users to crafters, bloggers, cooks, designers and event planners. But can Pinterest be used for job hunting?

Read on for a few pros and cons of using Pinterest as a part of your job search.

Pros

• Pinterest simplifies branding. The site’s pinboard functionality lets users arrange content according to themes they choose. This is a perfect way for users to express their expertise in visually oriented, creative professions like graphic design, event planning, fashion design and advertising. Profile hacks such as these from Mashable add an extra degree of personalization.

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  “Think about how your pinboards can frame your job search pinboard,” advises RezScore’s Sean Weinberg in an article for Mashable. “Showcase your interests, your well-rounded life, anything that can help give a prospective employer a better understanding of who you are.”

• Pinterest boards are easy to update. Unlike a personal website or blog, Pinterest makes it simple to add photos and captions with its browser bookmarklet.
• Pinterest plays nicely with other social media sites. You can link your Pinterest account to Twitter and Facebook and elect to update these sites with your latest pins.

Cons

• You may not be targeting the right audience. “At this point, it’s unlikely hiring managers and recruiters are trolling Pinterest for candidates, as they are LinkedIn,” says Forbes writer Susan Adams.
• Pinterest frowns on blatant self-promotion. “Try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion,” warns its “Pin Etiquette” page. This means that you’ll have to invest some time into pinning new content.
• A Pinterest presence may not make sense for your profession. Those with jobs outside of creative industries may find it challenging to use Pinterest solely to further their job search. Pinning a PDF resume, for example, would require the user to convert it to an image file, which may cause the text to appear blurry when it’s uploaded to the site.

Are you on Pinterest? Follow PayScale‘s boards for the latest salary infographics and other wage data.

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