I found it very interesting to read Dan Schawbel's article, 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media. It talks about utilizing different social networking sites like Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter and such to make your job hunting effective. His point was to make yourself more visible online to the recruiters and make job opportunities to come into your doorsteps instead of just waiting for the new job post to come up on job banks.
Although many of his ideas are brilliant and use today's technology to the fullest, I still have a huge question mark about hunting a job online. I'm not talking about job posts online, that's a good idea. But Schawbel talks mostly about creating network and connection online, and I don't know how effective that could be.
Most of all, you can never trust what's online. Sure you could post resume online, create LinkedIn and Facebook profile, and even post a video resume on Youtube, but how do recruiters know that what you say on it is true? Isn't it easier for recruiters to find people who they already know in person? Those profiles may have not been updated also, so it seems like a hassle for recruiters to make sure the information are trustworthy.
Also, it's hard to build a strong enough relationship with people online for job hunting. I think it's really hard for online networking to work just like in-person networking. Network and connections are advantage of job hunting because you know them in "person", not through online profile. When recruiters are hiring people, I'm sure your academic and career history are not the only thing he/she is looking at. Knowing a person means knowing their personality, habits and attitude and it's hard to present that online.
As Liz Ryan talked about in her article, social networking is important, but I don't think online social networking should weigh 90% of your job hunting time like Schawbel insists. I rather be using my time meeting more of new "real" people through my friends, family, my boss, professor etc, in person than trying to connect unreal people online for my job hunting.
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Well I think you make valid points but I'm going to disagree. First of all, you say that you never know if what people put in their resumes or on their profile are true. But this is the same if you reply to a job post or even mail in your resume. You can make up stuff on your resume through any medium. Also, on LinkedIn, they post jobs just on that site and send them to people in groups or in their industry. So, it's another way to find jobs that they may not post anywhere else. Finally, many of the people on LinkedIn are in to open networking, meaning you can connect with them and message them with questions about the industry or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that meeting people in person is definitely the best way to network. However, that is not always possible.
I think that increasing your exposure to recruiters and employers is always a good thing. However, I believe that speaking with someone face to face is always more memorable than a similar conversation online.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa- For the first part of my argument, I was talking about the influence of "in-person" connection and network in job-hunting and the point I was making was that it cannot be traded with online connection. I meant to say its hard to trust whats online unless you've met them before, and in person connection does not need to worry about that. But I was very impressed by your second half of comment and made me want to look into LinkedIn more.
ReplyDeleteThank you Alex for your comment too!
Your point is very great. I also think it is not fit to determine the grade for whole process. But it can be uesd as an additional tool to employ people.
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