Social Media Role in Job Search

Introduction

The planet has practically become a global village with technology. The huge breakthroughs have significantly broken the distance barrier, especially in the field of communication. The biggest impediment to a more elaborate contact such as that we have today has historically been distance. From days of smoke and drum beating up to today's digital newspapers the media, which are the means of communication, have undergone a lot of transformation. Currently, the bulk of correspondence and many other activities are largely carried out through the internet online, and one of the main online communications subsidiaries is social media. Besides serving as a medium of interaction, social media through its subsets like facebook and twitter also benefit its clients in many ways. One such particular benefit of social media is its use by fresh college graduates to access and acquire jobs in various fields. The paper seeks to give an in-depth discussion on how social media can be used to acquire a job. It also discusses its advantages and disadvantages.

Ways of using Social Media

Platform for Personal Branding

The number of graduating college students is steadily increasing each year, and every job seeker needs to know how to make themselves noticeable to the potential employers. According to the book “Social media for your job search” by Kelly and Marielle, many organizations today are making use of social media to identify the individuals with specific attributes they would want to have in their organization (5). For this reason, the perfect platform for marketing one's qualifications and talent is social media. Social media has a wider reach than any other means available today (Kelly and Marielle 48).

Personal branding in social media can both be done consciously and unconsciously. In their article titled Define Your Brand, Kelly and Marielle (48) observed that individuals tend to post virtually everything on social media and some of those posts later turn out to be destructive to one's image and thereby deny them an employment opportunity. Such is a case of unconscious personal branding. The idea, therefore, is that besides the personal profile posted on one's social media sites, consciousness must prevail when posting comments on the social media site, however informal the author may presume the comment to be.   

In a survey by Efficient, researchers established that 80% of those responsible for staffing in various organizations turn to social media for finding potential staff (Tu et al. 154). Some of the social media platforms used for this purpose includes LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Because these sites are not capable of hosting a live meeting, the employers will, to a great extent, rely on the online personal profile of the potential candidates. According to Kelly and Marielle (48), the ability to package web qualities in a concise and attractive way will place one's profile ahead of competitors.

Platform for Establishing Professional Networks

LinkedIn began merely as a website for sharing curriculum vitae. Currently, the site has grown to a significant business and professional networking site (Tu et al. 78). Currently, it has over 90 million members bringing together business people, professionals in various fields, employers and job seekers. Because of these diverse groups, the site has proved to be a crucial resource for every category of participant. Job seekers, in particular, will be able to establish contacts with many potential employers and through this, the chances of securing a job become considerably wide.

Fellow job seekers who are also on social media will contribute to the widening of one’s professional networks as well. For instance, an individual who happens to know an employer in need of an employee with certain qualifications that matches what their friend has would easily notify the friend.  In this manner, sharing information about a particular job becomes quicker. The networks established on social media helps in enhancing an individual’s visibility to a bigger pool of potential employers (Manroop, Laxmikant and Julia 169).

Many professional bodies are currently increasing their presence on social media platforms. Similarly, increased number of employers is taking their search for potential employees to social media, especially by targeting those professional institutions present on social media (Kelly and Marielle 48). Therefore, enrolling with these professional bodies will expose an individual to those employers present on social media. Furthermore, because of the confidence companies have on the employees acquired through the professional organizations, it becomes even easier for someone enrolled with such professional bodies to get a job.

Social Media for doing Job Search

Recruiting firms are avenues through which a fresh graduate can secure a job. Besides other forms of media such as broadcasts, these businesses prioritize the use of social media to link potential employees to employers in many industries. For this reason, it is prudent for college students and graduates to familiarize themselves with social media and particularly the recruitment firms’ websites to assist them to obtain internships and even employment opportunities. Maintaining regular visits to these sites and searching increases one's chances of securing a job by 70% (Kelly and Marielle 48).

Today, every corporate has a website on which all relevant information concerning the company is posted (Tu et al. 151). Most of the contents including career opportunities and access links to these websites are further displayed on their respective social media pages. Therefore, using social media can expose one to available job opportunities which could only be appearing on a company’s website and not appearing anywhere else. Searching social media thereby exposes one to those opportunities that a potential employee could have otherwise missed.

Prevalently, using social media regularly taint individual to be conversant with information and communication technology. A lot of operations in organizations today are more Web-based, and therefore employers will tend to look for an individual who has a sufficient knowledge of the Web, even if the key role for which they want to hire is not information oriented (Diepenbrock, Amy, and Wanda 880). Evidence of a little understanding of the internet, technically, also does market the individual to potential employers. In other words, some knowledge of the web leverages one’s efforts in a job search.

Finally, social media eases the task of job searching by availing some very useful career guidance. Professionals, especially from the human resource departments, often take their pieces of advice to social media to inform potential job applicants of what to do when undergoing a recruitment process. Diepenbrock, Amy, and Wanda assert that information such as the dressing code for particular positions, what to include in a curriculum vitae and individual requirements for specific jobs are all can be accessed through the social media (881). Obtaining and applying these significant pieces of information, therefore, goes a long way in propelling one's quest to find a job.

Advantages of using Social Media acquire Job

Making use of social media to seek for a job increases the visibility of the person’s qualifications. With one’s resume on social media, they can be sure that they are exposed to a vast number of potential employers. In addition to having a resume online, making regular industry-related comments, particularly on Twitter, also tend to attract the attention of potential employers. If an employer comes across a comment which they feel has some insights about a particular industry of interest, they will trace the author and determine his/her fit for a given job once there is a vacancy (Manroop, Laxmikant  and Julia 177).

Social media assist fresh college graduates in developing professionally. Because of the extensive information available on social media, a student or graduate can wade through to find specific information relevant to their profession and that which has development benefits. Pieces of information, such as details of available professional bodies and their respective examinations which suit students in those academic fields, are very resourceful to students and job seekers. Manroop, Laxmikant, and Julia (178) assert that some areas like accounting have a tendency of discriminating against job seekers without a relevant accompanying professional course, and if such pieces of information are available on social media, then it stands to be very beneficial.

According to Diepenbrock, Amy, and Wanda (891), social media sites enable a job seeker to show their interest in a particular field. In Twitter, for example, following a given industry and always twitting and re-tweeting about topics of interest in this industry makes it easy for a potential employer to tell how interested one is in their company. The ability of social media to show levels of interest by way of participation in one’s industry makes it possible and easy for employers to tell the amount of effort that the competing individuals would put to the job if employed. The more one participates in discussions related to their target industry, the more they inch closer to getting employment in that particular industry (Diepenbrock, Amy, and Wanda 899).

Disadvantages of using Social Media to secure Jobs

According to Kelly and Marielle (48), one major challenge of using social media to find a job is that so many individuals are using the same platform. Currently, there are a myriad number of people turning to social media to market themselves to the possible employers, and this makes it a challenge for one to stand out from the crowd. The vast number of job seekers who desire to be noticed by employers does not only make it hard for a potential employee to stand out but also make it difficult for companies to make proper selection in the face of limited time (Kelly and Marielle 48).

Secondly, maintaining a consistent presence on social media might not be tenable. Time is a finite resource, and sometimes job seekers become so busy that they don’t get a chance to visit their social media pages. During such situations, some critical piece of information may bypass them, but worse still, some potential employers see no benefit in using social media and still stick to traditional media like newspapers and radio in advertising of vacant positions in their firms (Manroop, Laxmikant, and Julia 180). These groups of employers, therefore, not only force job seekers to have divided attention but they also technically renders the social media useless.

Thirdly, it is possible that potential employers could be noticing a problem on a job seeker’s resume on social media. The error would negatively taint the potential employee and will remain so long as the job seeker does not notice it and make a correction. (Kelly and Marielle 48). Some issues which a potential employee would take simply such as an incomplete resume, an overlooked grammatical error in the resume or some opinion posted on social media can cost a job seeker a great deal. Most employers pay attention to particular issues on social media which otherwise don’t fairly represent the personality of the job seeker (Tu et al. 152).  Worse still, cases of overlooked mistakes may continue appearing on the profile of the job seeker for some time and keep turning away potential employers for the period the errors are still spotted.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that the world has transformed itself to a technological system in which many information can be transmitted and accessed through the social media. Job search has fully taken the advantage of the social media and a myriad number of graduates have used it to apply for jobs. Over the years, since the advent of social media, a lot of its uses related to career have been discovered. Such applications include networking with friends and professionals, carrying out personal branding and conducting a job search. All these have benefited job seekers. However, it should be noted that challenges such as overcrowding of social media by job seekers, limited time and the possibility of a potential employer drawing wrong conclusion from an online resume are some of the disadvantages dogging the advanced technology. Efficient use of social media for job search thereby requires one to have their eyes open to these associated demerits.

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Works cited

Diepenbrock, Amy, and Wanda Gibson."The Use of Social Media in College Recruiting and the Student Job Search." Social Media and Networking, pp. 880-899.

Kelly, Marielle. Social Media for Your Student and Graduate Job Search. 2016.

Manroop, Laxmikant, and Julia Richardson."Using Social Media for Job Search: Evidence from Generation Y Job Seekers." Social Media in Human Resources Management, 2013, pp. 167-180.

Tu, Xin M, et al. Social Networking: Recent Trends, Emerging Issues and Future Outlook. 2013, pp. 78-154.