Many lawyers and law students mistakenly believe that using social networking in your job search consumes too much time. While it is certainly easy to get distracted and waste time, it’s just as easy to control your time on social networking sites.
In my books, I recommend time blocking as one solution. I first learned about time blocking when I started recruiting – it’s a very common practice in the recruiting field. Time blocking is just assigning tasks for certain blocks of time; during that block, you do nothing but the assigned task. For example:
| 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. | Read, return emails |
| 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. | 15 recruiting calls for Position A |
| 10:00 -11:00 a.m. | Market Candidate B to 8 firms |
For a lawyer or law student using the Big 3 social networking sites in their job search, the time blocks for any given day might look like this:
| 8:00-8:15 a.m. | Facebook – search 10 law firm business pages for job leads; check to see if firm you are interviewing with on Friday has FB page |
| 8:15-8:30 a.m. | LinkedIn – prep for interview by searching names of 8 attorneys you are meeting on Friday |
| 8:30-8:35 a.m. | Twitter – search firm’s name on Twitter; save search and check for results again at 6:00 p.m. |
| 6:00-6:05 p.m. | Twitter – check saved search for firm where you are interviewing to see if there are any new tweets about the firm |
During the time blocks above, the job seeker must refrain from all other activities such as answering the phone, responding to emails, or checking the Big 3 sites for personal purposes (do that after you check for professional purposes). Consider setting a timer (most cell phones have timers) so that you know when to stop; forcing yourself to stop will also help you become more efficient over time.
Tags: career, Facebook, job search, job search schedule, LinkedIn, social networking, time block, Twitter