Pinterest is now a full-blown cultural phenomenon, people have started considering it for uses other than inspiration for recipes, home decor and the latest fashions. Pinterest users has grown, the site has evolved from a fun online scrapbooking network, into an increasingly useful platform for job seekers and prospective career changers of all ages. So for those who are looking to change jobs, Pinterest is now being used as a job search tool.

If you are new to Pinterest, don’t worry it’s so easy. After you register for an account, Pinterest allows you to “pin” and share items that interest you – like recipes, photos of dream vacation spots and blog posts – via online bulletin boards known as pinboards. As you build your boards, so do your friends, who spread your content by “repinning” your pins and sharing them with their networks.

Pinterest’s “Pin It” button lets you link to content you’ve spotted on a website or another pinboard as well as images you’ve uploaded from your computer and share them with your friends. The site also allows you to register through your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so you can share with those networks, too.

Here are 8 ways to use Pinterest in your job search:

1) Research a Potential Career

Just by simply typing your relevant terms into the search box in the top navigation bar, you can find inspiration and information about new career and entrepreneurial possibilities.

2) Research the Companies You Want to Work

Because Pinterest is such a visual medium, employer pinboards offer a great way to get a feel for a company’s culture, sensibility and work environment. To see if a prospective employer is on Pinterest, type its name into the search box at the top of the navigation bar. If that generates too many possibilities, go to Google and search for the Pinterest page of the company or organization.

You can even use Pinterest to attract the attention of potential employers by following their boards, repinning their content and commenting on their pins.

3) Pin Your Resume

If you search “my resume” on Pinterest, you will get thousands of hits. Be more specific with your search terms to really find what you are looking for, like writer resume, business resume, or graphic design resume. The goal of pinning your resume to Pinterest is to get it shared throughout the site, so make sure it’s somewhat eye catching, error-free and compelling.

4) Create a Resume Pinboard

Create an entire board that represents the different parts of your resume with different pins. Pin pictures of the companies you’ve worked for, schools you’ve attended, places you’ve volunteered and hobbies you enjoy. Utilize the text box given with each pin to describe the image, how it relates to your career and why it’s important to you.

5) Create Project Boards to Get a Job

Create a pinboard that showcases your portfolio so prospective clients can see how great you are and hire you.

6) Follow and Get Advice From Career Experts

Pinterest has a lot to offer from job posting to job search advice. Look for sites that use pinboards to showcase inspiring ideas and items related to finding work that makes people happy, give tips geared towards newbies in the workforce, and those who caters career advice for the unemployed.

7) Link to Your Pinterest Resume

People need to know. Once you’ve created a board for your resume, you need to tell people about it. You can include it to your LinkedIn portfolio, your Facebook and Twitter profiles and even in your paper resume.

Add it in your email signature and business or calling cards if you have them. The more places you show off your Pinterest page, the more it can help your job search. Keep all your boards clean and professional because they’re all viewable by anyone, at any time.

8) Be Motivated in Your Job Search

If you’re not ready to pin your life’s work experience to Pinterest, you can always use it for its original purpose — for personal inspiration. Job searching can be disappointing and stressful. If you’ve just come back from a particularly bad job interview, or sent 10 applications with no response, head to your Pinterest board for images that help you smile, laugh and cheer up.

Using Pinterest in your job search shouldn’t take up an excessive amount of time. It is one more tool to add to your job search resource. If you’re a visual person, Pinterest is for you!

Photo by Roxanne Ready