Saturday, February 21, 2009

Social Networks, Networking, and Finding Work

Before my facilitation at my client's worksite yesterday, I was speaking with one of the participants. We were making small talk before commencing, and the discussion turned to networking and landing a job. The participant mention that he had worked for an aerospace firm earlier in his career. This aerospace firm, of which he still has several friend in its employ, has according to his anecdote, begun hiring almost exclusively through LinkedIn. His friends had told him that the company was now more likely to hire individuals with LinkedIn accounts (and one would think individuals making more robust use of that site than others), than those without an account on LI.

I first made my own LI account back in 2007, and proceeded to not pay too much attention to it. That is, until I renewed my search for work very recently. While I haven't landed a job with my LI account yet, I am networking my friends and peers at a decent rate. I only have around 100 connections, but this has allowed me to uncover companies I had never heard of that friends or friends of friends have moved on to. Knowledge of these organizations now opens more possibilities to find work, and requesting recommendations from your connections is not only something you should do, you should do it now.

Does your organization utilize LI? What are its results? Was there a tangible difference in candidate quality between those utilizing LI, and those not using it? What about other social networking sites?

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