Spending countless hours on Facebook or Twitter seems to be an epidemic among young adults. While you may not be doing your homework, or even your job, you could be affecting your career.
The increased use of social networks across generations and economic backgrounds has legitimized these sites in Western culture, a fact that employers seem to have taken note of. As a result, social networking affects our job search skills, the way we professionally network and our prospective jobs.
Andre Denham, who teaches computer literacy courses at ASU, said organizations have started to create jobs for people where their sole task is to “friend” people all day.
ExecuNet, an executive research firm, found that 77 percent of recruiters screen applicants by running web-based searches on them.
One recruiter shared a story with Kate Lorenz, editor of CareerBuilder.com, about how social networks helped her make a choice between two candidates for a position at a Fortune 500 company. She said one of the applicant’s profile “listed her interests as ‘having a good time’ and her sex as ‘yes, please.’”
This wasn’t the candidate she went with.
Denham suggests that students “adjust their privacy settings and to make sure they post only what they want people to see today, tomorrow, and five years from now. The Internet does not forget.” It kind of makes you rethink posting pictures of yourself, red cups in hand, documenting your Friday night.
While some organizations have banned their workers from social networking sites, others see the broad use of social networks by both younger and older generations as a marketing strategy.
Some marketing companies even target younger students as employees, listing social networking as a professional “skill” in candidates they seek.
As their name implies, social networks allow you to network — professionally, that is.
That’s why Denham said he teaches his students that social networks can be used as leverage in business and education.
“John knows that Tim has x, y [and] z skills. John’s company is looking for someone that has skills y and z, and hopefully skill x. John let’s Tim know about the position and tells his boss he has the perfect person for the job,” Denham said. “That’s simple networking. LinkedIn has just made this process easier by showing the connections that we may or may not know we have with others.”
Realizing that these networks have become an arena for new marketing tactics, and employing youngsters in order to take advantage of this fact, doesn’t necessarily make social networking a skill — it just makes these companies opportunists. Putting “social networking skills” on a resume is like putting “can read and write” on a resume. Almost any and every college-aged student, or even any high-schooler, knows how to use a social network or knows someone else who can teach them. They just might not know how to use it well.
That’s where the skill part comes in. Using these sites as platforms for professional networking, and understanding that what one posts can shape the image one presents, is certainly a beneficial approach to take.
Can we say these people are practicing proficient social networking, or just practicing common sense?
We have been given a resource that allows us to open new doors without ever setting foot outside of our homes, or even leaving our computers.
Social networking may not be a “skill,” but if choosing to use this resource wisely is only common sense, then perhaps common sense is what more young adults need to practice.
You can either use social networking as a tool to do what it was intended for, taking advantage of the possibility of making endless connections that could affect your personal and professional lives, or you can use it as a way to broadcast your less admirable and less professional self. Reach Jessica at jessica.renee.stone@asu.edu
