Carol Gibson was trying to get back to Austin after the Christmas break. Hanging out during a layover at the airport, she wasn’t focused on trying to find a job, but somehow a job found her. This is his story. It’s about crazy weather, Twitter, the media, a moment of inspiration and serendipity.

Crazy weather

Carol was visiting her parents on vacation at their home in sunny California, about 3 hours outside of San Francisco. The crazy weather was actually happening on the east coast. Unusually harsh snowstorms delayed flights across the country. Carol learned that her flight was canceled 8 hours before the scheduled departure. He called the airline to rebook, but couldn’t get through. So his only option was to make the 3-hour walk to the San Francisco airport, hoping to catch the next available flight.

When he arrived at the airport, he was told that he could not fly home for another 3 days. The only alternative was to change airlines. Although the new airline flight would not leave until the next day, she took it. She was forced to spend valuable funds from an already tight budget on a hotel room.

Twitter

For Twitter user Carol (@gibsonic) posted occasional progress reports or “tweets” about her situation using her mobile phone.

December 27 – “At SFO I wonder how I will get back to Austin. Flight canceled. Maybe this is a sign that Cali wants me back. Or bad weather in the east …”

December 27: “I’m at the San Francisco International Airport”

December 28: “Repeat (at San Francisco International Airport)”

December 28: “Progress! (@ Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport)”

The media

So there he was preparing for his stopover in Phoenix on December 28. Then, out of nowhere, she got a tweet from a stranger: “Are you late? I’m an AP reporter and would like to chat if so.” The tweet included a phone number to call.

Then she replied: “@AmandaLeeAP yes! I was supposed to fly the SFO to aus yesterday, but I had to modify the plans. I left my information on the phone number you provided.”

The reporter interviewed Carol by phone and asked her to quote her for a print story. Then, while Carol was on the plane from Phoenix to Austin, she was featured in an article that appeared in the St. Louis newspaper, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo.com.

When she landed in Austin, she was contacted by a second reporter who asked her permission to record the telephone interview. A local radio station carried the story, quoting Carol on the air over and over at the beginning of each hour. Unaware of all the press she was getting and happy to be home, her friends began contacting her. They had read something about her online or heard her on the radio.

Later, when Carol recounted the details of her wild 2-day trip, she told me that she didn’t think she had said anything remarkable to reporters: “My comments were things like, ‘Why should you get mad?’ We’re all human, it’s a blizzard. And I guess I had a sense of humor about it. The way I saw it, it just annoyed me: I didn’t miss a wedding or Christmas. I didn’t have to sleep at the airport or travel with Small children. “

An inspired moment

Apparently, Carol did say something special to the media, something that, in hindsight, came out of her for an inspired moment. When asked by the AP reporter about her profession, she questioned, in her own mind, whether she should mention that she was unemployed. She decided “what the heck” and snapped, “I’m an unemployed business analyst.” It turns out that swallowing her embarrassment about being unemployed was a smart move.

Serenity

Several weeks later, Carol received an email via LinkedIn from a representative of a new company called Helical Plane: “I saw the story on the news. We are hiring and would like to speak with you.”

After a couple of rounds of interviews, Carol was offered a contract job with the opportunity to be considered for a regular full-time position in the future.

“I agreed,” Carol said, “because it’s like a first date. I can see if it will work.”

Meanwhile, Carol is covering her bases. He has recently created his own DBA, Crossbrook Consulting. “I plan to help non-profit organizations, SMEs and start-ups with their events, promotional products, etc. I love creative communications work – I guess it could be called ‘unconventional marketing’. This experience with Twitter and The media reinforced my desire to work with creative communications like social media to promote causes I believe in. “

Carol’s big takeaways from her Twitter and media experience during her job search:

– You never know who is listening to you and your story.

– Always use positive language about your situation.

– Keep your sense of humor.

– Don’t be ashamed to say you are unemployed.

– Use all the tools at your disposal.

It seems that Carol also learned the value of seizing the moment!