Searching for Entry Level Job Seekers on MySpace
Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and Yahoo! 360 have been getting a lot of coverage recently from the media because of the dangers that they pose to students, recent graduates, and others who are searching for entry level jobs or internships. The primary danger presented result from accurate or bogus information posted by the candidates themselves. After all, what employer would want to hire a candidate who portrays themselves in a very public forum in a very bad way?
Yet sites such as MySpace, Facebook and the others also present tremendous opportunities to those candidates and to the employers who want to hire entry level job seekers and interns. How? Because they're all about networking.
By some measures, MySpace is either the most popular web site. By virtually all measures, it is solidly within the top five sites and 80 percent of people who use social networking sites use MySpace. The next most popular social networking site is Facebook. It is about the 16th most popular web site and has eight percent of the social networking site market. The other social networking sites either barely have a percentage or two of the social networking market or less than a percentage point.
So how can an employer effectively use MySpace and Facebook? Most of the press to-date has focused on employers excluding candidates from the hiring process and sometimes even terminating existing employees after finding information about them on-line at social networking sites. While that may be a legitimate use for the sites in some circumstances, what the media has not done a good enough job of covering are the potential ways for employers to include candidates in the hiring process.
MySpace and other social networking sites are valuable recruiting tools because they provide employers with acces to a desired demographic group: thoe who are searching for entry level jobs and internships. The sites also allow employers to connect with people who may not be looking for a job or who have chosen not to use traditional Internet recruitment sites such as CollegeRecruiter.com. These passive job seekers are often the most valued to employers yet few employers actively seek them out.
When a student, recent graduate, or anyone else uses a social networking site such as MySpace, they create a profile to talk about themselves. Employers can and should run keyword searches on the social networking sites to connect with these potential candidates. Let's say that you're searching for an electrical engineering student and you're located in Virginia. If you go to MySpace.com, select the MySpace search option (so you only search MySpace pages), type into the keyword phrase "electrical engineer student virginia" (without the quotes), you'll be taken to the search results page that summarizes profiles that contain those keyword search terms. Profiles that are the most relevant are listed at the top of the search results. When I ran that search, the top result was a 27 year, male, Caucasian graduate school student in electrical engineering. Although "Tad" is currently studying at Carnegie Melon University in Pennsylvania, he lists Fairfax, Virginia as his hometown so would likely strongly consider an employment opportunity in Virginia should it be presented to him.
The vast majority of the profiles such as Tad's have been created by individuals to talk about themselves, but employers can do the same. If your profile is interesting enough, MySpace and most of the other sites allow other users to add you to their "friends" lists. The number of friends that you have acts as an unofficial barometer of your popularity.
One of the small number of employers which is currently using MySpace is the U.S. Marine Corps. In February, the Marines begain purchasing banner ads and then in April they set up a profile page. That page features video of screaming drill sergeants, amphibious landings, and lots and lots of red, white, and blue. Despite the difficult recruiting time that we're in, the Marines already have 15,000 "friends" linking to their page. In addition, Sgt. Brian Griffin of the Marine Corps recruiting command stated that more than 50,000 visitors have clicked from the Marines' page on MySpace to the main Marines recruiting site, marines.com.
Following the lead of the Marines have been employers such as the U.S. Army and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Employers are also starting to use sites such as YouTube, which is another very heavily viewed site. YouTube features mostly amateur videos and receives tens of thousands of new videos each day. If your firm has a recruitment video, you should post it to YouTube. There's no cost, nothing to lose, but potentially a lot to gain.
Let's circle back. Why would you want to spend your valuable time posting content to sites such as MySpace and YouTube and searching for candidates on social networking sites such as MySpace? Because only about 15 percent of your potential hires are looking for a new position at any given time. If you want to tap into 100 percent of the marketplace, then use sites like CollegeRecruiter.com to effectively and efficiently reach the 15 percent of those who are searching for an entry level job or internship but then also use sites such as MySpace to reach the 85 percent who may be receptive to your message but who aren't actively seeking a new job.
Individuals need to pay careful attention to the privacy options. They should balance protecting what they would rather not have potential employers see (but want friends to see) against leaving enough useful information of the type you describe so they can be "discovered" by a talent scout and get their big break! And just to play it safe, even what is "friends-only" should avoid the worst kinds of disclosure, e.g., nudity, admissions of criminal conduct, and the like.
As a recruiter, I often see that folks submitting resumes to me are adding TOO MUCH personal information such as:
Social Security Number
Street Address
Birthdates
Salary History
Marraige and Family information
Personal hobbies unrelated to job
When ANYONE creates a Facebook account, or LinkedIn account, or an account on any of the social networking websites, there is absolutely NO REASON to put all the above information in your resume - it's not needed or relevant to your job search.
In today's technology - you only need to put a cell phone number and an e-mail address for POC information. If you wish to assist the recruiter in finding you as a candidate within a 'commutable' distance, you can add the city and state (thanks - that helps!), but the street address is not necessary, and if job seekers get the heebee jeebees about giving out their street address, then get a Post Office Box.
Here are some of the tips for job searching I hand out to all my job seekers via our recruiting website or at job fairs - hope it's useful:
PROFESSIONAL RECRUITER TIPS TO ASSIST YOU IN GETTING YOUR “ELECTRONIC RESUME” NOTICED
FASTER & MORE OFTEN IN WEB-BASED DATABASE QUERIES
E-mail / POC Info.: Do not put your name, address, e-mails, phone numbers, or page numbers in a header or footer section (MS: Word, Toolbar -> View, Header/Footer) within your resume. When parsing over into resume databases, this text information may be stripped out. You may not get any calls because your POC contact info may get lost in the upload.
Contact Info: List a personal e-mail in addition to a work e-mail; if you move or change phone numbers, you can still be contacted. Multiple e-mail addresses are vital on resumes – most recruiters use e-mails for initial contact. Turn ‘off’ your spam filter or you may miss vital recruiter contact requests. If you share an e-mail address, address, or last name with a spouse – get a 2nd e-mail address for job hunting to avoid resumes systems auto-merging profiles based on those matching factors.
Resume Length: Server space is cheap. Resumes are converted to text in an upload to most employers’ resume systems. Expand your electronic resume to include specific experience, skill sets, education, training, etc. – multiple-paged resumes are not a problem for ZelTech’s database.
Computer Skills: Note all minor to major experience w/ hardware/software, certifications, special training, and programming languages. Employers are very interested in technological and computer savvy candidates, especially with a proven ability to learn more.
Clearance: Note your current (not past) Department of Defense Security Clearance w/ the most recent periodic review date (if applicable) near the top of the resume, if applying to defense contractors.
Key Skill Words: Note key skill words at end of the resume to increase query results; use industry buzz words & spell out acronyms at least once. The more the words are repeated in a resume, the higher ratio of recognition by query search engines.
Baseline Info: Answer all online profile & assessment questions about skill sets, knowledge, salary expectations, and work site preferences. This gives recruiters a feel for a ‘comfort zone’ candidates are seeking, and eliminates calls for entry level jobs beneath experience and salary requirements.
Text Version: Convert the resume to a text version before uploading into resume databases. Convert tables, boxes, columns & special text boxes to simple lists. Graphics, unusual text & bullets will convert, but based on the complexity of the parsing engine, the resume content might convert over to a ragged & hard to read format. Text versions parse cleaner and are easier to read.
Important Do’s: Carefully read the full job description before applying – including the job’s required security clearances & salary range (if noted). Apply to positions only if you have the listed skill sets, education, and clearances, as well as an interest in the posted salary range (if an employer posts a minimum salary, assume no more than $15K - 20K for the high end of the salary range).
Error Messages from Websites: If you are working from a government computer system, error messages may be created by firewall issues. Another suggestion to avoid error messages would be to go to the browser toolbar, click on Tools, Options, and delete all temp files, history, and cookies before you enter the recruiting website. That usually cleans up issues & errors.
Dawn Boyer, Recruiting Manager
Zel Technologies, LLC, 54 Old Hampton Lane, Hampton, VA 23669
Phone: 757-325-1341 / Fax: 757-325-1256
Direct E-mail: Recruiter@zeltech.com
Review our current job opportunities at: http://www.zeltech.com/employment
Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer
If you haven’t joined Linked-In yet, it’s an awesome opportunity to connect with other folks, as well as finding POC’s within specific industries: Visit my Linked-in Profile at the URL noted below and start your own profile and network connections by visiting: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/267/9ab