The Job Search Tools of Social Media By Robert Vega, Director, Liberal Arts Career Services
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter – is your son or daughter regularly on social media? If so, it may not all be a waste of time. Social media is quickly becoming a popular tool for job seekers and employers alike, especially around networking and real-time hiring. So if your students aren’t making the most of social media in the job search, they should be. Consider the following suggestions you can share with your students as they prepare to search for a summer internship or post-graduation job.
1. Create a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows users to connect with people in their network, and their network’s network, including company representatives, recruiters, alumni, and colleagues. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn reads like an online version of the user’s resume, allowing recruiters to mine for potential candidates whose profiles match their hiring needs. LinkedIn also provides access to interest groups and discussion boards, a job posting board, and company profile pages for career research.
2. Create a Twitter account. Twitter is a social media site that provides users a way to micro-blog on any topic and follow other micro-bloggers. As a job search tool, TwitJobSearch.com offers job seekers access to hundreds of jobs and internships posted by recruiters with real-time hiring needs – this means that the jobs are currently open and ready to be filled in the immediate future. And as a Twitter user, your students can micro-blog on a topic that is relevant to their intended job industry. This will not only help them demonstrate their area knowledge, but it will also help develop their professional network.
3. Clean up your digital dirt. According to CareerBuilder.com, 37% of employers use social networks to conduct candidate screening. With that in mind, is your student’s online presence ready for the job search? Before beginning the job search, your student should do a narcisurf (Google themselves) to see what comes up, and to remove anything that may appear unprofessional or controversial. Some items can be removed or hidden by changing privacy settings, while others are, very unfortunately, public and harder to remove. If your student would like help leveraging the job search tools of social media, encourage them to visit Liberal Arts Career Services for a student appointment – we’re here to help! In the meantime, they can also read more about social media and the job search at our website.
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