Job Searching in a New Era - A Look at Social Networking

Social Networking is becoming a huge part of peoples’ daily lives; from tweeting your daily thoughts to creating your dynamic profile in Linkedin.  For the most part, everyone is somehow connecting within social media websites.  Studies suggest that more and more employers are using social media to recruit job candidates, and they are spending less time posting jobs using job boards, newspaper and other historical methods. 

Are you connected?  Lets have a look at 3 social media outlets and how connecting to them will enhance your job search methods! 

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

“LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn had more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide”.  (Source: www.wikipedia.org)

With more than 60 million registered users, you are bound to make a few key networking contacts!!  LinkedIn allows you to create a professional profile highlighting your employment history, skills/experience, and educational background.  You can even upload your resume straight into your profile for quick and easy profile creating; just ensure you double check the information in your profile after you upload…because of course, technology is never 100% accurate.  To use this tool effectively, you will want to add contacts to your “network” and use these contacts to make business relationships (through 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd degree networking). 
You are also able to follow companies to research company profiles including types of occupations within the company, job postings and networking contacts.  This site offers a wealth of other helpful tools including personalized job search postings.  Linkedin also allows you to request “recommendations” from people in your network (of course from people who know you and your work performance); and these recommendations can be posted directly to your profile for potential employers to view!

Once you create an account you can visit the “Learning Centre” (found when you click on the “more” tab at the top of your profile page) to learn how to best utilize this tool

*Stay tuned tomorrow for information on Twitter!

-Sunny & Sassy