Editor’s note: Find Chef Jobs on Twitter was originally published in November 2015 and most recently updated in May 2022.
While LinkedIn might be the first social media platform you consider when looking for chef work, Twitter offers plenty of opportunities for job seekers too. Given the high number of recruiters now using the platform, don’t discount it. Especially if you’re looking for a chef role with a larger hospitality company. But how do you go about finding chef jobs on Twitter?
Find chef jobs on Twitter – get the basics right
Firstly, step back from the idea you always need to apply to a chef job ad to land a new job. Nowadays many recruiters search Twitter to identify and headhunt chef talent. So be mindful of what you’re posting on your account. Look to present a friendly, professional face to the world.
Use a clear and crisp headshot as your Twitter profile picture, and remember to optimise your Twitter bio. You have 160 characters for your bio so you need to make them count. Mention qualifications and noteworthy past work experience. Link out to your blog, website or online portfolio if you have them.
And make sure your bio uses keywords recruiters would use in searches for someone with your chef experience.
Read: Get a Blog to Land That Next Chef Job
It’s also a good idea to open your DMs. Twitter’s default privacy settings don’t allow
non-followers to contact you – and that means recruiters and potential employers can’t either.
Switch these on by going to your Twitter account > More > Settings > Privacy and Safety > Direct Messages > Check “allow message requests from anyone” box to allow DM’s from non-followers, so that you’re easily contactable if your profile catches a recruiter’s eye.
Your Twitter content
Your posts shouldn’t undermine the day job! Keep your tweets, retweets and comments focused on promoting what you have to offer future employers and staying up-to-date in the industry.
Be yourself
It’s important to come across as genuine. Tweet what interests you, and don’t try to present yourself as someone (or something) you’re not. Let potential employers see who you really are.
Showcase expertise
Twitter offers chefs a great opportunity to share their expertise with others. If you have a blog, post links to your most recent entries (without excessively spamming). Promote your skills using pictures of your dishes and hashtags so they are easier to discover by others online. Answer questions and use what you know to help others.
Read: Using Social Media as a Chef Jobseeker
Find chef jobs – Twitter: build your network
On Twitter you’re able to follow individuals and companies without needing to make a formal connection as you would on LinkedIn, making it easier to grow your Twitter network.
To build a solid professional Twitter profile, start by following the accounts of:
– Chefs you admire
– Companies you might be interested in working with
– Recruitment firms
– Past colleagues
– College course leaders
– Industry bodies and key suppliers.
If you’re serious about finding your next chef job on Twitter, then you’ll definitely want to follow professionals in your industry.
If you’re a Twitter beginner, start by following 50 accounts and adding as you get comfortable.
It’s important to go beyond just following accounts. You should try to engage with and respond to tweets of interest regularly to build contacts – out of which chef job opportunities could arise.
But don’t expect to attract thousands of followers overnight – it takes time and effort to grow a Twitter following.
Seeing job vacancies on Twitter
If you start following a sizeable number of accounts on Twitter a fair amount of content will fill your Twitter feed. With posts being made constantly it’s unlikely that you’ll see all posts in real time. So how can you sift through your feed to find and capture details of the chef jobs being posted by accounts your following? The answer is by using Twitter Lists.
With Lists you can group accounts together in one feed separate from the rest, name them, and scroll through the related content in one place. You can use Lists to organise your most valuable sources of job search content, and make sure you never miss an important update from chef recruiters or prospective chef employers.
Start by going to Lists and start a New List
You can give your list a name, a description and choose to add an image too. These are all essential fields if you want to make your list Public, but for a chef job-seeking list you’ll probably want to set your list to Private so no one can see it.
Use TweetDeck to monitor your industry for job openings, updates and insights. This is a dashboard feature that provides you with a high-level view of your feed.
Once you’re logged in to TweetDeck using your Twitter sign-in, you can curate and customise your Twitter feed by viewing multiple lists, trending topics and account information all in one place.
Searching for chef jobs on Twitter
With so much information available on Twitter, take some time to learn how to use search tools correctly.
Make use of Advanced Search
Twitter’s Advanced Search feature lets you filter and refine your search terms to help you find exactly what (or who) you’re looking for. You can narrow it down by keywords, post date, engagement, hashtags and more.
To access the advanced search function, click the three little dots next to the search magnifying glass on the twitter top navigation menu.
Hashtag (#) searches
Hashtags (#) are an enormous part of why Twitter is such an invaluable chef job search tool. In a nutshell, they’re the internet’s way of connecting Tweets (messages) by topic. As you do your career research, try typing in different hashtag combinations and see what pops up in the list.
For example, if you type #chefjobs, you can get an idea of who is tweeting what about jobs in the industry. You can also get a sense of what related hashtags those sites reference, which then helps to refine your searches further. For example, many sites using the #chef hashtag also use the #cooking hashtag. And you may get very different results if you search #chef with #profile as opposed to #chef with #jobs, or include a specific job title (e.g. #chefdepartie #chefjobs).
As you discover what content is posted against what hashtag, you’ll get a better sense of how to leverage hashtags to return the best and most relevant search results.
Hashtag (#) saved searches
The best part about using hashtags in your job search is that Twitter allows you to save your searches and come back to them later, once they’ve been repopulated with new information (so for example new job postings). This hack is great for keeping tabs on job market leads over time, without ever forgetting how you first found them!
To save a hashtag for later:
– From the Twitter homepage, go to the ‘Search’ tab.
– Type in the hashtag you want to come back to later and hit enter.
– Click the 3-dotted icon next to the search bar.
– At the bottom of the menu click, ‘Save search’.
Using Twitter for chef interview preparation
Congratulations, you’ve secured an interview! Now, it’s time to do your prep work, so you can go into that chef job interview and win over the recruiters. Twitter is a great way to learn detail about the company and the interviewers themselves.
We don’t suggest you follow any of the interviewers (creepy) but you can use Twitter to find out potentially useful information about them. Perhaps you discover a shared love of paddle boarding. Whatever the details, if there’s a way to work them into your interview naturally, it could help build rapport with those interviewing you.
Find chef jobs – Twitter, conclusion
How to use Twitter to find a chef job:
– Leverage Twitter’s speed and be the first to know about chef job openings
– Use tools like Lists and TweetDeck to stay organised as you research chef jobs
– Plug keywords/criteria into Advanced Search to display the most relevant and local job opportunities
– Use your prospective employer’s tweets as material for your job interview
– Engage strategically and think before you tweet (don’t be a troll).
Now take your chef job hunting to the next level, Happy tweeting chef!
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