How to use facebook to land an industrial training (IT) Attachment

Today, I’ll show you how to use facebook to find a place for industrial training attachment. Facebook is not only meant for posting updates to impress friends and do things that don’t add tangible value to your life. You can actually use this social media platform to achieve something as worthwhile as getting a place for your one, three, six or twelve months industrial training.

How many friends do you have on facebook? Who are your friends? If you simply add friends for their pretty faces or just to add up your number of friends, I hope you get lucky with this. But if you have been selectively building your network, this process will work more effectively for you. If not, it’s not late to get things right anyway. You can still get good result using this method.

Tip:  Be selective at building your virtual Network. If your network can’t do more than add to the number, what’s the point?

Preparing your mind

After your family members, who is the next person(s) to know about your quest for industrial training? Let me guess; your friend. Is something wrong with asking your friends if they can help or connect you to someone that can help? Let me try that too; nothing wrong. Should that be any different from asking your virtual friends for similar help? If someone on your friends list thinks you are invading their privacy by asking for such help, it’s either you are not doing it right or they are of no use to you; at least for now.

Very important note: A person not responding to your request does not mean they don’t care to help. It could be that they don’t have the means to help. So don’t take it personal or assume they are of no help to your network.

Let’s get straight to it, shall we?

Create a clean professional online presence.

Add education, work experience (if any), skills and interest.

You don’t want to come off as undefined or faceless. If you want to get someone to help, you should look up to it. If your profile is scarcely filled, or don’t have a clean picture, go over and add the vital details that will encourage a potential help. Details like your current academic status, skills and interest, a nice looking profile picture should help. What and what you add here should further elaborate your interest in what you are getting into. Clean up your profile, scrutinize your wall posts and remove public stuffs that don’t professionally tell well about you.

Create a Resume in note

Go to Notes on your profile, then Write a note. Create your resume as a note with title, My Resume. You can use simple resume formats; start with your full name and contact details as heading, then Objective, Education, Previous work experience and Skills. Here is a sample resume on AfterschoolAfrica Facebook note to help you

And ask for help

I wish but no one will magically find your resume and contact you for industrial training. You have to get as much eyes as possible to view your note. You can do it with several methods.

Update your wall

Update your wall post with something as brief as this;

I just finished my 3^rd semester exam. To complete my curriculum for the session, I really need to go for industrial attachment to gain practical knowledge in [insert field]. Please can you help or do you know anyone that can help me with a place for my IT? I’ll really appreciate your effort. Here is a facebook note containing my Resume for more details about my qualification.

[Your Full name]*optional*

Pointing to a readily available resume will show a sign of seriousness and dedication on your part. Also having it available on facebook makes it easy for a potential help to quickly access your resume without living facebook.

Sent personal facebook message to friends

Chances are that only a few of your friends will get to see you wall post. If you decide to ‘tag’ your friends in the note, a lot of people care less about facebook tagging these days; some even think its offensive. You need to go a step further than that. Send a personal message to your facebook friends. You can either send a bulk message or selectively send messages individually (this will take more of your time but likely to work better because you have the freedom to personalize each message). Something as simple as;

Hello [Insert name],

I just finished my 3^rd semester exam. To complete my curriculum for the session, I really need to go for 3months industrial attachment to gain practical knowledge in [insert field]. Please can you help or do you know anyone that can help me with a place for my IT? I’ll really appreciate your effort to help me get a place. Below is a facebook note containing my Resume for more detail about me.

 I apologize for any inconveniencies and invasion of your privacy.

[Your Full name]

[Insert link to Resume]

Follow Up

If any of your friends responds and indicates to know someone at a company you are interested in, ask for introduction. Again, briefly tell them more about your interest in the field and how you can be a good trainee. Don’t assume self importance about it, else you end up sounding arrogant. Connect with those contacts. Follow up on any lead you get. People are willing to help if you can show that you deserve their time and help.

Points to Note

Be humble but don’t come off as desperate, pitiful or miserable.

Don’t tell your life history or financial circumstance. Rather tell how you can be of help to your potential employer

If you think it’ll be embarrassing to follow this guide, then don’t bother. You can follow any method that best fits you. But know that survival in the job market doesn’t care about what fits you or not or about how embarrassed you get. You want results, why not concentrate on that.

Go get to work. I’ll appreciate if you come back and tell me how this turned out for you.

Remember to share this page with your friends before you click the next page. They’ll be glad you did.