Social networks & job seekers
Is it undeniably important that a job seeker make use of social networks in their job hunt in this technologically advance times? No. Nevertheless, given the financial climate of the world, specifically the USA, one might say that you should give it a shot to everything possible to get your resume out there and expand your network in order to get to all prospective employers. It is hardly obligatory though that one use a social network to find a job, as though it be the answer to all their employment misfortunes. It is as useful and useless as a job fair or sending your resume to everyone you know. The only need? to enroll in social networking sites such as LinkedIn, which sell itself as the ‘in’ social networks for their specific slot in the market in social networking, may be to avoid being left out by your friends for not being a member of it. But then you’re only folding to peer-pressure and not really meeting the demands of financial or employment pressure.
Having said that, there are plenty of merits to employing social networking sites in your job hunt. To begin with, why wouldn’t you try to post your resume in all places imaginable? Why wouldn’t you attend a job-fair if it meant improving your chances for a job even in the least? And why wouldn’t you send your resume to everyone you knew, in order to see who might be hiring? Similarly, why wouldn’t you sign up for a social network and use it to air your resume and broadcast the fact that you are on the lookout for a job? There isn’t really any disadvantage, as long as you are able to assertively sell yourself on that network. In the business universe it’s all about “who you know”, and thanks to social networking sites, you can be in touch with to everyone conceivable in the business world. The list of contacts in your (network grows exponentially by signing up for such networks, and the successes speak for themselves as job hopefuls go on to attribute their employment to domains specializing in business and job placement such as LinkedIn, Facebook and other Facebook clones. And even so, even the head hunters who still run standard websites that put out your resume are now using social network sites to couple employers to future employees who meet their requirements. If the professionals can see some utility in it, then you likely should be able to as well.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 4:43 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.