Gardere, who was an IT consultant at Morgan Stanley in New York, says he didn’t spend time on these types of sites while he was employed, but has joined several at the urging of his wife. He says he’s finding they are a great way to reconnect with former recruiters and co-workers and most importantly, a vehicle to post and send his resume quickly and efficiently.
“One of my friends happens to work for an HR department and is a director of IT staffing and I didn’t even know,” since they lost touch for a while, Gardere says. On a whim, he did a search of his friend’s name on LinkedIn, and says he never would have discovered what his friend was doing now—not to mention what an important contact he can be–if it weren’t for the site.
No longer do IT workers rely upon job sites like Dice, Monster and Hotjobs. Social networking has morphed from being places to chat, catch up and share photos into an important tool for finding a job. Besides LinkedIn, which claims 36 million members and more than 160,000 company profiles, and is considered the de facto site for job prospecting, other sites such as Plaxo, Classmates.com and even Facebook and MySpace, are being used to look for jobs, seek career advice and spread the word about employment status.
Recruiters are also taking notice, and utilize such sites as a useful way to seek out prospective candidates.
“I’m a very heavy user of LinkedIn because most of the positions I recruit for are senior level,’’ both within IT and out, says Martha Kerr, a Senior Staffing Consultant at pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough, in Kenilworth, N.J. “It’s a great tool to dig deeper into an area of expertise that’s highly specialized, and the more highly specialized, the more helpful that type of social networking is.”
Kerr says she too found her current position because of LinkedIn after someone contacted her and asked if she knew of anyone who might be interested in it.
In the past four to five years, Kerr has filled positions in information security and senior director of IT architecture at Schering-Plough. One thing she puts a lot of stock in is recommendations users have. “There’s some implicit level of approval of someone who has recommended you,’’ she explains.
Gardere concurs, saying one of the first tips he got from friend when he started using LinkedIn was to get people to recommend him, since “it’s a fast way to show your character and work ethic, and that sends you to the top of the LinkedIn food chain.”
Kerr also suggests that job seekers join discussion groups and ask and answer questions to raise their level of recognition among their peers.
Applying ‘Cold’
It took Ben Cathers about a month to find a new job using LinkedIn, although he also has profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Plaxo.
“The job was posted on LinkedIn, and I just applied cold,’’ says Cathers, who is working in the financial industry in New York as a social community manager, using social media to develop an online community. “It’s a nice mix of IT because it’s hands-on web development and managing developers, as well as doing all the marketing and online media.”
During the interviewing process, LinkedIn continued to be useful, Cathers says, because he was able to research the company. “I was able to look up the profiles of other employees in the company to get a sense of the makeup … and the type of person they were looking for.”
Cathers, who previously worked as an IT recruiter in Boston, says he was happy in that job but wanted to relocate back to New York. He knew social networking sites would be valuable in helping him “find the optimal job in a bad market.” Like Kerr and Gardere, Cathers says the handful of recommendations he got from people he previously worked for “adds an extra layer of validation to what you say.”Besides getting recommendations, he advises others looking for work to make sure their profile and all their links and sub pages display information people would feel comfortable and proud to show to an employer.
Prepping for Interviews
Out-of-work Project Manager Sandra Herforth, who found her last job on LinkedIn, spends a lot of time perusing social networking sites even though she isn’t all that optimistic she’ll find something there.
“With the market the way it is I’m not having any success with people responding any longer. It’s been a waste of time,’’ says Herforth, of Newton, Mass., who lost her job last July. Yet, she still sees value in using the more business-oriented sites “as a tool to prepare for interviews,” when she is given an interviewer’s title beforehand, so she can find that person’s profile and learn more about their background and what might resonate with them.
Herforth says she can also glean where a company’s “knowledge weaknesses” are so she can discuss in the interview something that might be relevant to that position and where she can bring value. “Everyone’s looking to solve something so I’m looking to fill in those areas where it’s obvious” the management team has holes. “You have to differentiate yourself.”
Kerr concurs that social networking sites are critical for someone who is job hunting, or thinking about changing jobs. “Social networking is the 21st century. It’s how you look for a job and how you find a job,’’ she says.
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.