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.

Social job search will look to bring our professional and social connections into the same plane as job listings, this is already happening on LinkedIn. When a relevant opportunity is discovered, a job seeker is able to see if any of their connections work at that company, or can otherwise offer help in obtaining the desired job.

The Shift is Happening

The offline social aspect of job search will continue to converge with online social networking.  This fundamental shift will be most widely adopted by the “Generation Y” audience.  This future generation of job seekers will expect a process that is transparent, social, personal, mobile and efficient.  To best prepare for these new job seekers, it is critical that employers understand the directions in which job search is evolving. The digital synthesis of personal profiles, social and professional networks, and online recruiting tools for employers will allow jobseekers to proactively stage their presence online and better position themselves as qualified candidates.

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:

Part 1

• How the Helping Friends Career Network got started
• The secret to her success becoming the top Twitter recruiter

Part 2

• 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

Part 3

• Advice to Educators and Leaders – become part of the movement
• Bring transparency and authenticity to the classroom

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