Social Media transforms the job search

Few days before we have an interesting article here talking about, if facebook, twitter and linkedin really get you a job? The article noted how now-a-days, a college degree and even years of experience do not necessarily translate into a good job. This is especially true for young professionals entering the work force for the first time in many cases.


Social media is now becoming the premier landscape for job searching and hiring by recruiters. Based on a recent survey by Jobvite, on some interesting trends regarding social media use for job searches, some of the more interesting findings are:

• One in six employees use social media to find their current job, up from one in nine in 2010;
• Nearly 90 percent of job seekers have a social media profile;
• 54 percent of all job seekers use Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to find jobs;
• 50 percent of job seekers have used Facebook, 26 percent used LinkedIn and 25 percent used Twitter to look for a job in the past 12 months;
• 18.4 million Americans say they found their current jobs through Facebook, along with 10.2 million through LinkedIn and 8 million through Twitter.

In another survey here, when asked how important it is to an individual to having an account on each of those social media platforms, LinkedIn was voted as the platform of choice by 59 percent of those active social networking users. Twitter came in second at 58 percent, YouTube came in third at 55 percent, followed by Facebook at 53 percent.

Brian Phifer - CEO of Phifer & Co. - a full-service recruitment agency with a total offering that delivers best-in-class talent management and recruiting services, says that the best advice he could provide for job seekers utilizing social media is to make sure that all of your social media presence is in sync and professional. Now-a-days everyone Googles everyone, so it is important to make sure that an individual’s message and presentation is structured the same across all social media.

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