Social Networking is Career Networking

Article from Flowork International

Preston Porter joined MySpace four years ago as a way to meet new people at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township.Now a college senior, Porter is using MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking programs just to get a job.“I understand (social networking) in an organic sort of way. I’ve always participated in and enjoyed those types of things,” said Porter, 22, of Lavalette, Ocean County. “Now it’s turned into this whole industry thing where companies are using it to market themselves and to do job searches.”Rather than condemning Facebook and Twitter as a waste of time, college career counselors are touting them as useful tools when it comes to post-collegiate job search.Every little bit helps, especially in today’s job market. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE, reported that companies will be hiring 22 percent fewer college graduates this year than they did in 2008.Career advisors at Stockton were inspired to start hosting workshops on Facebook job searching two years ago after attend a conference hosted by the NACE. There they learned that many businesses are setting up Facebook accounts and vetting prospective clients based on their profiles.“Once we sat in on that, it was like, ‘Wow, we’ve never really thought about this,’” said Walter Tarver, director of Stockton’s career center. “We set up our own accounts to see what was going on with those sites. It was an eye-opening experience.”Now, when students show up at Stockton’s career center for counseling, they get a crash course in Social Networking 101. Today’s employers want to see everything about their future employees, from their job history to their tastes in books and music.“We make sure they have (on their Facebook profiles) their degree, when they’re graduating, what their interests are, as opposed to just the generic comments and ‘What are you doing right now?,’ updates,” Tarver said.Jennifer Gushue, an adjunct professor of marketing at Rowan University in Glassboro, Gloucester County, advises her students to use LinkedIn, a Facebook-esque site created primarily for networking and job searching.“They can look at the contacts for people in the industries they’re interested in,” Gushue said. “You can also have your resume on there, and you can have former internships to write you recommendations.”Porter, who will graduate in May with a literature degree, took it one step further and created his own Web site, called Prestopedia.com.The Web site includes Porter’s resume, contact information, blogs, short stories and links to his profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace.In his blog, Porter wrote about being inspired by media experts such as Dan Schawbel, whose new book, “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success,” promotes using social media tools in building a career.Despite his creative writing background, Porter views social networking as his best chance of landing a job after graduation. He spent the summer setting up a viral campaign for a pet store in Missouri as an internship, and he continues to study the marketing efforts of major companies to learn what works and what does not.“A lot of PR companies claim to understand how the social media market works, but unless you live on those social media sites and know what to do and not to do, it’s tough,” Porter said. “A lot of companies are missing this, and that’s where I think I can come through on the creative writing side of it.”Porter has tried pushing his friends in a similar direction, advising them to update their Facebook pages or start a blog. But he has found that some still do not believe that companies put much stock in social networking.“I think a lot of people are ignoring this fact, thinking, ‘Employers aren’t going to look at my Facebook. They’re not going to bother looking at my Twitter,’” Porter said. “But whether you want to participate in it or not, it’s important to at least realize that employers are looking at this.”In that same vein, career counselors are advising students to keep inappropriate content, especially photos, off their Facebook and MySpace pages.“Companies now realize they can track your social media footprint,” Gushue said. “If your Facebook profile is filled with illegal, inappropriate or unprofessional images or thoughts, that could hurt you.”