Photo Credit: EMPLOYola Surge via Pinterest
“Resume is no longer the first step in the recruitment process; It’s one of the last.” (Ryan Holmes, 2012 – Reference 1) I can’t agree no more. How many of you have a Twitter/LinkedIn account before starting this module? For Twitter, I believe most of us have one but how about LinkedIn? Not many I guess. I did not have one until #MANG2049 taught me the importance of building a online professional profile. In this post, I am focusing on Twitter and LinkedIn.
(Vermont Design Works, 2014 – Reference 2)
Twitter’s redesign 2014 allows tweets stand out in order to catch the eyes of a recruiter. (Stephane Le Viet, 22 April 2014 – Reference 3) However, do send out the appropriate message to your targeting audience.
Twitter enables us to follow accounts that are of our area of interest like in marketing aspects. Best part is, I do not have to know marketers personally to start a conversation or interact with their posts. Personally, I will add links to my blog and LinkedIn in my Twitter Bio so that people will be redirected to me eventually.
Photo Credit: Esther Vargas via Flickr
During my internship at IBM’s Marketing Department, we used Skype to exchange information. However, whenever necessary, LinkedIn is mostly used to obtain particulars about agents that work under IBM. However, back then I did not see the importance of LinkedIn yet.
(Reference 4)
Are you inspired to own a LinkedIn account now? I know I am! 🙂
(Reference 5)
I was also motivated by Hank Blank to create a LinkedIn profile. In the video, he stated that students who do not use LinkedIn lose their ‘native’ status and become a LinkedIn ‘immigrant’ instead. (Note how this links us back to Topic 1) Employers do not want to waste time training employees on LinkedIn hence I assumed having a LinkedIn profile has become a ‘criteria’ instead of a bonus.
I strongly agree when he said, “Focusing on resume building is good however resumes do not appear on the Internet but your LinkedIn profile does.” Linking back to Topic 2, employers look out for things that cannot be found on your resume like personality or having an active/creative online presence.
Now that I have a LinkedIn profile, I believe that my profile cannot be build up overnight but instead, it takes time and effort to slowly develop authenticity and maintain a larger connection of networks. (Lisa Harris, 2013 – Reference 6)
Concluding thoughts
I believe the use of Twitter and LinkedIn can benefit us (undergraduates) to start building up our network of connections now and be prepared for future employability opportunities.
(400 words)
Thank you for reading! 🙂 Do drop me comments if there’s any. Feel free to add me on LinkedIn too! 😀
References
Reference 1:
How Social Media Is Making Job Hunting Better – Hootsuite Social Media Management. 2014. How Social Media Is Making Job Hunting Better – Hootsuite Social Media Management. [ONLINE] Available at:http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-job-hunting/. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
Reference 2:
Twitter Profile Redesign 2014 | Vermont Design Works. 2014. Twitter Profile Redesign 2014 | Vermont Design Works. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.vtdesignworks.com/blog/twitter-profile-redesign-2014. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
Reference 3:
Twitter’s Redesign Makes the Platform Ripe for Recruitment. 2014. Twitter’s Redesign Makes the Platform Ripe for Recruitment. [ONLINE] Available at:http://mashable.com/2014/04/21/twitter-redesign-recruitment/. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
Reference 4:
What is LinkedIn? – YouTube. 2014. What is LinkedIn? – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
Reference 5:
Hank Blank – Why College Students Need to Get Into Linkedin – YouTube. 2014. Hank Blank – Why College Students Need to Get Into Linkedin – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Plu2RYqjBA. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
Reference 6:
Harris, L. (2013). Building your online professional profile_0. [online] Connect.soton.ac.uk. Available at: https://connect.soton.ac.uk/p32693389 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].
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Heys Xiuzhen~! Your post is informative and thought-provoking on how crucial digital profile is to us especially in our tech-savvy generation. Similarly with you, back then I was still blissfully unaware to the importance of online profile such as LinkedIn. The videos you posted have confirmed its importance and it’s interesting you pointed out that owning a LinkedIn profile might have become a criteria instead of a bonus in employees-search. In your views, are online platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter the best way to showcase your digital profile? Or does it depend on the nature of your skills-set that will make certain online platform a better way than the others to market yourself online? Keep up the good posts! ^^
xoxo,
/ novina ✿ ladyskorpios /
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Hello Novina! Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know you think of my post. 🙂
In my view, online platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more is the best way to showcase one’s digital profile. As employers are unable to get much out of one’s resume, these social platforms do come in to play a huge role in showcasing employers a wider variety of information like personality or character or even their own network of friend etc.
Yes it does depends on individuals’ technology skills but however I believe our generation ‘grows up’ with technology. Hence most of us would definitely not find it a problem to start learning how to use social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to connect, reach out or even to market ourselves. 😀
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Good question Novina. Could you also be asking if platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn or even blogging seem to work better for certain skill-sets compared to others? I share your sentiments on questioning whether LinkedIn and Twitter are the best way to showcase our digital profiles.
Certainly, job seekers looking to work in the media and journalism or web design and digital industry may find such platforms more relevant for them to showcase their skills isn’t it? What about those pursuing a career in the military or highly classified government agencies (where anonymity is key!) or other traditional fields like engineering and manufacturing?
Your question got me thinking about that. I think it boils down to the extent of usage of such platforms. Perhaps on the most basic level, engineers, doctors and the military can still use social media platforms to get acquainted or as a means of communications. But to use those platforms to showcase their talents may be a little harder, unless they can start posting videos of what they do, which we must then question the relevance and appropriateness of doing so.
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Hello Xiuzhen. I think you highlighted a good point by Hank Blank that having a LinkedIn profile has became more of a criteria than a bonus. I agree with you that it takes time to build up your LinkedIn profile. Isaac highlighted a good point in his post that regular maintenance of our digital profiles is something we should keep in mind. I have one question regarding the LinkedIn video you posted. I do see the importance of the connections that LinkedIn provides – connections that can help us professionally in the future as well. However, I am a bit skeptical. Do you think the connections on LinkedIn can really help ‘connect’ us to relevant people, especially those ‘2nd’ or ‘3rd’ degree connections? I would like to think that Asians in general still prefer word of mouth rather than word of mouse. Do you think so?
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Yes I do believe that LinkedIn can help us to connect us to those that are relevant to us. For example, through Hank Blank’s video, he advised us to go where we want to be. If we want to be in business, use the business channel that businesses use which is LinkedIn. He added on that the best way to find a job in the field you are interested in, is to engage with the people living in that world.
You can take a look at the link below about the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections in LinkedIn. Those people that are within your connection, regardless of 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree, and you are all members of the same group hence you will be able to start conversation and communicate with them.
Yes, I do believe some Asians do prefer word of mouth rather than word of ‘mouse’ but one has got to admit that social media are evolving around our daily lives now. I think the power of technology has shown us how powerful and effective it can be as compared to word of mouth.
Don’t you agree that through social media, you can send out a message and reach out to a hundred/thousand/million within a minute? However, imagine sending out that same message through word of mouth? How many people can you reach out to in a minute?
https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/110/~/your-network-and-degrees-of-connection
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