Referrals Still King
It is estimated that half of all jobs are obtained through referrals. Whether it‘s networking at a professional event, extending relationships with contacts you made online or even asking an old college roommate to refer you to their boss — finding a job has always contained a social element. And in today’s information age, social real-time interaction is becoming the norm. People spend 22 percent of all online time interacting through blogs and social networks. Services like Facebook (+500 million users) and Twitter (+145 million users) dominate the web space, and LinkedIn boasts over 75 million professionals worldwide.
Job Search, Still a Disjointed Process
Despite the overwhelming presence of online social networking, the social aspect of job search remains a primarily offline process. Those who do leverage their connections for a job must engage in a disjointed process: asking around for contacts, calling friends of friends, scheduling in-person meetings, cold-calling hiring managers … even emails must be composed manually. I’m confident that this reactive process will improve with new web tools that will intelligently connect job seekers with employers. Click to continue
Just before Halloween, I connected with Dawn Mular, the world’s top recruiter on Twitter and CEO of the Helping Friends Career Network. Dawn was very easy to connect and interact with, given the nature of what she does. She takes a genuine interest in people, collaborative technologies and helping put people to work.
Many times over, school administrators and HR professionals ask why students should be coming out of school with an online brand. I was keen to get Dawn’s perspective on how social media has changed recruiting and how her clients react to seeing more than a traditional 2-page resume about a candidate. For those that are interested in downloading the entire 10-minute podcast, simply click here.
For those interested in key sections, you can download and listen to key extracts:
- How the Helping Friends Career Network got started
- The secret to her success becoming the top Twitter recruiter
- Client reaction to social media in the recruiting world
- Stepping outside the traditional recruiting box – how and why
- Important employment trend – green businesses will mean more job / project opportunities
- Advice to Educators and Leaders – become part of the movement
- Bring transparency and authenticity to the classroom
I had a great meeting with a Starbucks Recruiter yesterday. Kirsti Stubbs is on the forefront of recruiting Retail and Hospitality graduates and professionals into her world at Starbucks. She is on the leading edge using social media tools and methods as a cost-effective way to source great candidates. Next week, I will post some video highlights from our conversation. The good news is, our program teaches students these new tools and techniques, and it offers them a tremendous place to start building their brand through post-secondary education.
When we advocate WhyHire.me to educators, faculty and students, we do need to offer external validation of some key changes that are happening in the world of job search and recruiting. I am interested in profiling your stories related to your use of Twitter, Google, Google Alerts, Blogs, Linkedin. I would very much like to profile your successes and emerging new best practices you use to source the right candidates, cost-effectively.
Your stories will hit our blog, be promoted to our users and be used for sustained social media and traditional media outreach. Check out our past coverage here.
Please drop my a line at andy [at] whyhire [dot] me or tweet me at @goandychurch
