Technology Tuesday: TwitterJobSearch.com

Use Twitter to further your job hunting experience. 

For the unemployed or under-employed, the job hunt can be daunting; there's the long search for anything remotely in the field, the stories of a hundred-plus applicants per position, the nervousness of the interview, the dread of unpaid bills looming in the background. Temporary agencies are inundated with job seekers, and every day there are more stories about the unemployment rates.

It's not easy for employers, either. In an employer's market it might seem like a dream come true for the companies looking to fill a position—but don't tell that to the overworked HR staff who have to review every application, set up interviews, arrange for background checks in some cases, all the while doing it on the same budget with the same staff. HR departments that are hiring are dealing with a huge increase in applicants, adding to the difficulty of finding the right candidate that will benefit the company's return on investing in them. Even just posting the job can be expensive in tough economic times; posting a job to a traditional high traffic employment site like Monster.com can cost more than $790. Even services like Craigslist now charge for $25 for job listings, which used to be free.

It makes sense then that recruiters and firms who are hiring are looking to cut the expense of the process, and so more and more are turning to the free microblogging service Twitter to advertise their positions and look for suitable candidates. Good news for candidates if you could find just the right employer to follow on Twitter and hope they posted a job you wanted—until TwitterJobSearch.com.

Like Indeed, which was covered here recently, Twitter Job Search is a search engine that returns job opportunities, focusing on Twitter updates instead of the more static websites. They tap into the Twitter application interface and leverage the power of the site's own search function to do the heavy lifting.

The genius lies in Twitter Job Search's ability to see context, and find otherwise hidden jobs that you might not have looked for without help. They've taken away the disorganized hunt-and-seek mess and replaced it with a more streamlined experience. Instead of having to track down and follow dozens of employer-recruiter Twitter accounts, you can now search for a job by keyword and see the results from all recruiters looking to Twitter to fill the job. Or, if you're stuck for inspiration you can browser the listings available as well, and new listings are posted within a week though you can search father back.

You can filter the results by date posted (Tweeted on), Job Title, Skills, and Job Type, (full time, part time, contract, etc.) When you see a result that interests you, you click on the embedded link and are taken right to job posting website.

So you can use it without even ever having to use Twitter. Not that you would do that, of course. So give it a try. Just make sure that once you land the job, you don't tweet about it or you might lose that job before it starts.

Credit for this story idea goes to Susan a.k.a. @BuzzEdition.