Career Marketplace Blog

In this article from U.S. News and World Reports On Careers, Lindsay Olson explains, Finding a Job Through Networking Groups.

Read an excerpt of Olson’s article below. Read Full Article

Everyone keeps telling you to network to help with finding a job, but you’re apprehensive about doing so. You’re not sure where to start, or what to do once you get to an event.

Relax: you’re in the same boat as a lot of other nervous job seekers. With a few tips, you’ll be ready to start swapping business cards and building relationships to help you find your next position.

But first, a word about networking. Many job seekers think that going to one event will score them an interview at a great company. That’s not how it works. Networking is about building relationships, and it takes a while. So start before you’re really ready to quit, if possible, so that you have time enough to develop relationships with the people you meet, then move on to getting invited for a job interview.

Rather than thinking “how can this person help me” when you meet someone new, consider how you can help that person. It might be as simple as referring her to a salon you like. And while this little favor might seem insignificant, your new contact will remember you helping her, and want to do the same for you down the road.

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In this article from Lifehacker, Alan Henry explains how, FaceWash Makes Sure Your Facebook Profile is Clean and Interview-Ready.

Read an excerpt of Henry’s article below. Read Full Article

If the prospect of going back over years of Facebook posts to determine whether some of them should be hidden or photos untagged is daunting, webapp FaceWash can help. The service scans your posts, timeline, and tagged photos to make sure nothing incriminating is going on, and warns you if it finds anything.

Read On to find out how it works

In this article for the Huffington Post, Carolyn Thompson explains how colleges are helping students clean up for their Social Media image prior to their job search.

Read an excerpt of Thompson’s article, Google Yourself: Colleges Help Students Scrub Online Footprints, below. Read Full Article

Samantha Grossman wasn’t always thrilled with the impression that emerged when people Googled her name.

“It wasn’t anything too horrible,” she said. “I just have a common name. There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren’t of me, things I wouldn’t want associated with me.”

So before she graduated from Syracuse University last spring, the school provided her with a tool that allowed her to put her best Web foot forward. Now when people Google her, they go straight to a positive image – professional photo, cum laude degree and credentials – that she credits with helping her land a digital advertising job in New York.

“I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people,” she said.

Read On

Job Seekers: 5 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Presence

By Kat Krull

As you might realize, your social media presence matters when you are searching for a new job. In fact, according to an infographic by Online Colleges, 37 percent of employers use social media to research job candidates. But they aren’t just looking for reasons not to hire you – they also want to see if you present yourself professionally, if you seem to be a good fit for the company culture, and learn more about your qualifications.

So how can you ensure that your social media presence represents the type of job candidate you are? Here are five things Online Colleges suggests:

1. Stay connected. Employers look for an active social life, and like to see that you’re connected and engaged with friends on various social media sites, the infographic states. Although many job seekers think they need to show little personality on their social media profiles, it’s actually a great way to help employers get to know you and see how you might mesh with the office atmosphere in the workplace.

2. Be your most professional you. Make a great first impression by keeping online interactions appropriate. Avoid making comments that might be offensive to others and only post content that you would be comfortable with potential employers seeing.

3. Treat your profile like your resume. Highlight the skills, experience, interests, and education that you want employers to see. And double-check that everything on your
profiles matches up with the resume you’re submitting with your job application…or else it might raise a red flag!

4. Be active, update often. Update your profiles often to ensure that the most current information is available to employers who may check out your online presence. It also pays to get active in industry groups, chats, and pages in order to continue learning and show your passion for your field.

5. Get referred! According to an Internships.com survey, one in 10 personal referrals is hired. Social media is a great way to secure recommendations and referrals — and can help you uncover hidden job opportunities within your network.

What do you think? Have you optimized your social media presence in any of the ways listed above?

Kat Krull is the Marketing Manager of Resunate, a job application tool that tailors and optimizes your resume for a specific job. You can find Kat and Resunate on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

In her article for the Simply Hired Blog, Simply Blog, Jennifer King explains What Does Your Internet Persona Say About You? Recruiters Want to Know.  Learn how you can manage your online persona and help your job search.

Important statistics from King’s article:

• 91% of recruiters have visited a candidate’s social networking profile.
• 68% of recruiters have hired someone based on what they found on a candidate’s social networking profile.

 Read Full Article

In this inforgraphic from The Undercover Recruiter, learn How your Facebook Picture Can Damage Your Personal Brand.

Image from The Undercover Recruiter

In her article for About.com, Pinterest Tips for Job Seekers, Alison Doyle explains to job seekers how this growing social media website can help their job search.

Read in excerpt of Doyle’s article below. Read full article.

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites and you can use it to enhance your job search as well as for personal pinning.

Well designed and pinned boards can provide a terrific visual to connections and prospective employers. Once you have set up Pinterest, you can add a link to your page from your LinkedIn and other online profiles, websites and blogs. You can also include a link to Pinterest in your email signature.

Why use Pinterest? If you are in a visual field, you can show examples of your work and Pinterest can become an online version of your resume. For other job seekers, your Pinterest boards will show that you’re current with what’s happening in your industry and career field.

For everyone, using Pinterest shows hiring managers that you are on top of and engaged with what’s happening online.

It doesn’t take much time to set up and maintain Pinterest. You can do it in a few minutes a day and the payback will be worth the time you spend.

Here’s more on how to use Pinterest effectively when you are job searching from Jacques Bouchard, Internet Marketing Manager, Onward Search.

Pinterest Tips for Job Seekers

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Resunate.com will host a live Twitter Chat with Karleen Harp, aka@TheResumeSmith. The chat will be tonight, April 24 at 8pm.

Topics discussed during this chat will include:

Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

• Isn’t a LinkedIn profile just an online version of your resume?
• Why should the resume and LinkedIn profile be different?
• How does the LinkedIn Summary compare to a Professional Profile or Value Added section on a resume?
• What should be different about job descriptions on a resume vs. LinkedIn?
• If currently employed and looking for another job, what should be on LinkedIn profile?
• How can I connect my resume to my LinkedIn profile?
• What should I do on LinkedIn to promote my profile once it is written?

For more information about this chat, visit the Resunate Blog.

To join the chat,  go to twebevent.com/resuchat, login to your Twitter account, and you are able to participate!

In his article for Mashable.com, Sean Weinberg answers the question, Can Pinterest Help Your Job Search?

Read an excerpt of Weinberg’s article below. Read Full Article

Just when you thought you had mastered the job search on all social media platforms, along came Pinterest.

You’ve optimized your Facebook and LinkedIn pages and you’ve got the Twesume. Now it’s time to amp up your job search even more by putting your resume on Pinterest.

What’s the Big Deal?

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In his article for Mashable.com, Tony Morrison explains the Top 3 Mistakes Job Seekers Make on Facebook Timeline.

Read an excerpt of Morrison’s article below. Read Full Article

Eventually, Facebook’s 845 million users will have to climb abroad the Facebook Timeline hub.

There will be plenty of challenges to consider with the slow roll-out of updates to the world’s largest social network affecting millions of people.

More than 18.4 million Americans have used Facebook to find a job. Facebook Timeline poses new obstacles for current adults looking for work.

How can the Timeline mess up an existing job search? Here are three things job seekers should avoid doing on Facebook Timeline.

Read on