Social Media and Your Job Search

Posted by:    Darlene Duncan CWDP, JSS, CCC, JCTC, JCDC
                   Training Coordinator

Everyone is all a twitter about Social Media. What is it? Do I need to be involved? Should I use it find a job? The list goes on and on.

Let me answer some of these questions.

What is Social Media?

I’m going to give a very basic answer to that question. Social Media is a group of digital tools that you can use in a variety of ways. You can use them to connect with friends and family. You can use them to connect with people who share your interests. And yes, you can use Social Media to job search. In a recent human resource article, 79% of employers are using LinkedIn to recruit new employees.

Do you need to be involved in Social Media?

That’s a question that you as an individual will have to answer. Are there advantages to being involved? Yes. Are there dangers in being involved? Yes. Anytime you put information about yourself on the internet there is risk. I’m not going to go into great detail here about the dangers of being active in Social Media. Life is full of dangers, real and imagined. Each person must do his or her research and decide for themselves about their level of involvement in Social Media.

Should you use Social Media to find a job?

In today’s digital world people are using all forms of Social Media to find jobs. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all valuable tools to find your next job. There are other Social Media formats out there; however, those three are the most well-known. If you’re new to the digital world of Social Media and you plan on using these tools for your job search the first thing you’ll need to do is to learn how to use them. Almost all social media formats offer tutorials on how to use their system. Make sure you know how to use their privacy settings and set them to match your comfort level.

 

Up until recently we had a client that came through the Daytona One-Stop whose self-appointed mission was to get a job using LinkedIn. He taught himself what he needed to know about LinkedIn and was kind enough to post what he learned in several blog posts. He no longer has time to post to our blog because, drum roll please, he found a job using LinkedIn.

The truth is that computers are becoming more and more integrated into our lives. Like it or not, they’re here to stay. Does this mean that you don’t need to do the face-to-face networking that has been around for a very long time? No, that’s not what it means. The electronic networking you do is simply an additional tool to boost your network.

It may be politically incorrect but in the real world, it has always been and will probably always be more about who you know than what you know. Yes, you need to know how to do the job. However, there are a great many other people out there who also know how to do the job. That’s why who you know becomes so important.

 

Can Social Media help you find your next job? Possibly, if you learn to use it correctly. Regardless of economic conditions, finding a job has always been and will probably always be the most difficult job any of us ever have.

 
Will you be able to find a job if all you do is complete job applications? Maybe, but it will take a very long time. Using Social Media, face-to-face networking, and a good résumé will probably get you faster and better results.