How Twitter Got me a Job
Twitter got me my job.
When I first discovered Twitter, I was very skeptical. Who cares about what I’m doing now, let alone what other people are doing? The public timeline is a mess and filled with too many “going to bed” posts. However, I started to warm to Twitter when I started following people I knew or had only met briefly at conferences. Many of them are interesting and smart and there’s the occasional link or discussion of interest. It’s also a great tool for a procrastinator like me looking for a diversion. 
(OK, maybe I should do something about that.)
Last month I was looking around for a new job. (Side note: After 13 years at Creo/Kodak, some people thought I would be there forever. Why is that?) I was updating my resume for an interview in Vancouver and twittered:
to which Matthew, whom I had met only once at a UPA conference a couple years ago, replied:
If not for what happened next, I would still be cursing Matthew for such useless advice. 
And the roller coaster ride started.
One stupid message about fonts and we’re moving to Boston. It’s amazing.
PS: If you want to follow me on twitter, go to http://twitter.com/jzip.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Cool, kewl, book. When you outta here?
March 9th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Fantastic!
Reminds me of that old saw that when looking for a job, you need to tell EVERYONE you meet that you are looking for a job…and isn’t the theory about “The Strength of Weak Ties?” Perfect example!
March 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
ha! totally forgot it was about fonts. Anyone else want a job?
March 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
If it doesn’t involve moving I’d love a job Matto, but I doubt you could do that for me.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Damn — that was almost a post on how Jay’s blog got Robert a job…
March 11th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Great story! There is something cool and promising here about online social networking in a professional sense becoming very useful, rather than lots of LOL! and BFF! and endless smiley crap.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
That is a great story, but I am holding fast to my anti-twitter sentiment. For now anyway - almost a year ago I finally broke down and got a cell phone, so I suppose you just never know what I’m going to do…
May 6th, 2008 at 1:35 am
頑張って下さい。
出会い系 順序
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Hi - I found your blog by Googling “Mathworks” and “daycare.”
I’m applying for an engineering position at The Mathworks and was wondering how you’ve found working there as a parent. I have a 3 year old boy. Currently, I develop mirror polishing algorithms (in Matlab) for this telescope:
http://www.eso.org/public/astronomy/projects/e-elt.html
which is fantastic, but it means my son and I live 700 miles away from my husband which is rough on family life.
So, how have you found it?
Thanks!
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am
and by “it” in that last sentence, I meant life as a working parent at the Mathworks (should not write comments on Friday afternoon! too tired!)
June 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi Christy,
Well, I’m in the enviable position of being the only working parent in our family, so these issues don’t come up for us.
That said, The MathWorks is a very flexible workplace which makes it easier on working parents. Contact me offline (jay.zipursky@gmail.com) and we can chat.
Jay