In the May 31 New York Times Job Section, Julie Weed wrote an article describing how more and more companies are using social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to find employees.
More personal online pages, profiles and blogs are serving as a source for companies looking to fill jobs. In fact, there are fee based services that a company can use to mine its own employees’ social networking contacts for potential candidates. The author cites a corporate recruiter who believes it makes sense for employers to tap into employees’ social networks because it accelerates the personal referral process and expands the candidate universe. One employer mentioned in the article is hoping to make this type of grass roots effort part of the company culture where recruiting goes beyond the HR department and all employees become talent recruiters.
For the job seeker, this means having all your online information up to date and consistent with your brand message. And while this may be a new trend for employers, it is still the job seeker’s responsibility to communicate the type of job they want to everyone in their network and market themselves proactively.
