Extra: Social networking can help job hunt

University of Minnesota senior Erin Lamberty uses words like "tweet" and "retweet" a lot.

"Here's the link, please retweet," she said as she sat in front of her computer, reading a link someone posted on twitter.com. "So he retweeted, sharing them with his network," and that, she explained, is how news of a job opening at an advertising agency spread across the internet.

Lamberty is about to enter this tough job market, and she has an edge because she's fluent in tweet - the language of Twitter, the social networking website.

"I'm now competing with people that aren't just recent grads," she said, "but people that have been working 20 years that have been laid off."

Lamberty uses social media extensively in her job search. And though she hasn't yet found an ideal job, she is finding opportunities she likely would have missed altogether if she weren't on the web.

"So this guy, he's in advertising, (and) someone he knows tweeted, 'We're hiring in Austin. Planners, art directors, new business, and traffic,'" she explained as she looked at one particular Twitter update on her computer screen. "It goes from the blog, out to Twitter, and (the post) spreads from there."

"So too bad I'm not moving to Austin," she laughed.

It might be too much to say you have to be on Twitter, Facebook, or web sites like them if you're looking for work. But recruiter and headhunter Paul DeBettignies said the sites can only help.

"Should you be? I would say yes," DeBettignies said.

He said, for example, someone looking for work at a particular company could search Facebook to find out if he or she happens to know anyone who works there.

"Maybe they can help you get in touch with a hiring manager," he said.

DeBettignies, who regularly hosts seminars and online webinars to teach people how to find work, tells his audiences, "At the end of the day, you have to think of it this way - you're marketing you in your job search."

He says using a site like Twitter, where users type short sentences (no more than 140 characters) to tell people what they're doing or thinking; and Facebook, where users show and tell anything about their daily lives keeps users connected to huge numbers of people who could help them.

"Right now, it really is the time for you to raise your hand and say, 'Hey, I am looking for (a job), I want to work at this company, or I'm seeking this kind of position.'"

Companies like Richfield-based Best Buy are starting to use the same social networks, in addition to traditional job boards, when they're ready to hire.

"We're building relationships with candidates," said Best Buy recruiter Tim Kutzer.

"I think, from a candidate perspective, if you're not looking in those places, you may be missing some of the opportunities that are out there," he said.

Best Buy's corporate web site includes a function called "Tell a Friend," which allows anyone to share job openings with friends on Facebook, or other networks, with the click of a mouse.

Best Buy also uses Twitter, so if job candidates follow "bbytaxrecruiter," for example, they'll see job openings in the company's accounting and finance departments.

"There's a lot of candidates on these networks, and I think it's important for us to be there," Kutzer said.

One of those networks is LinkedIn, and DeBettignies said LinkedIn is the one website no job seeker can afford not to use.

"LinkedIn is a free professional networking site, and you can treat it a lot like an online resume," he explained during a recent webinar.

Unlike other networking sites, people use LinkedIn almost exclusively for business.

Other job sites - like Minnetonka-based LinkUp, for example - use LinkedIn to enhance their own usefulness.

LinkUp, a site that links users directly to job openings posted on corporate web pages, automatically searches a user's LinkedIn contacts to let the user know if he/she already has a contact at a given company.

Lamberty, the U of M senior, also uses LinkedIn as a vehicle for sending people to her personal web site and blog.

"It's a great hub to have your history (available), or maybe a project you've worked on," she said.

She uses her blog to post her thoughts about trends in her chosen field of advertising, among other things.

"And so, when I do talk to somebody about a job, I can send them to the blog and say, 'Hey, I have an opinion, I do think about these things, I am not just in class.'"

The blog and other online activities also help her control what prospective employers find if they Google her.

In Lamberty's case, a Google search turns up links to her contact information and articles she wrote - not links to party pictures or other potentially embarrassing material, which DeBettignies said job-seekers need to monitor.

"It's called the two beer rule," he said. "No pictures after (you've consumed) two beers ever get posted."

DeBettignies said it's OK to show some personality, but he gets concerned about people who post pictures of, say, a keg stand at a tailgate party.

"You're getting into some fuzzy gray lines there," he said.

All of these guidelines are important to consider in this new world where networking is more than what it used to be.

"Even if you're not in advertising or the online world, the companies you might be working for are using these tools," Lamberty said. "And just having the understanding of how they're reaching out to their consumers online is really important."

For more information:

Click here for Facebook groups discussing how to use Facebook in a job search.

By Scott Goldberg, KARE 11 News   Read Scott's Blog

 

Check out our KARE family of Web sites:
	takeKARE		Metromix
	Moms Like Me		Minnesota Bound
	Showcase Minnesota