Are you on LinkedIn? Good. LinkedIn is a great place for growing your current career as well as finding new opportunities. Now rethink Facebook.
You might not have ever thought about Facebook as a job-search resource, but it’s becoming a bigger player in the career arena.
Why?
Are you on LinkedIn? Good. LinkedIn
is a great place for growing your current career as well as finding new
opportunities. Now rethink
Facebook.
You might not have ever thought about
Facebook as a job-search resource, but it’s becoming a bigger player in the
career arena.
Why?
(1) A job search is essentially a numbers
game. Facebook has more users than any
other social media site, and that’s not to be ignored. Even if you’re in a specialized field, there
are opportunities everywhere. You don’t
know what the path to your next job might be, and there are many possibilities out
there.
(2) Even though Facebook has a casual,
more friends-and-family focus, there are plenty of groups specifically for life
sciences and science careers. Also,
companies of all kinds are increasingly establishing Facebook pages that have
tremendous amounts of information—everything from new job postings to corporate
culture or other background information that can give you insight you wouldn’t
otherwise get.
So how do you get started?
First, make sure your wall is cleaned
up—no controversial pictures or comments that could derail your professional
reputation, please. Then, include a
little more of your professional information in your profile, update regularly
with general information about what’s going on at work (you started/completed a
project, learned something cool, etc.), build your friend list by reaching out
to people you’ve lost touch with, and post things on your friends’ walls that
show interest in what they’re doing, too.
You can even establish a Facebook page that’s entirely focused on your
professional life if you’d like.
Finally, join some of those groups I
talked about and participate in discussions.
You’ll become more known, get the inside scoop on industry information,
and often get a more candid opinion on particular companies or topics than you
can find elsewhere.
Here’s one more tip: Check out Eric Osterman’s post, 3
Effective Ways to Find a Job With Facebook.
He’ll give you more information on company fan pages, show you how
Facebook SEM can drive traffic to yourself, and show you how to best leverage
your current Facebook connections.
Facebook is another way to build
your online identity, and it’s a very useful one that can have a huge
impact on your current and future career.
