The Graduate’s Guide to Social Media Job Hunting

I graduated nearly two years ago now, so I know the struggle when it comes to searching for a graduate job. It seemed that almost all the jobs I was interested in meant relocating to London and more often than not they required you to have a substantial amount of work related experience. I mean, it’s not like I’ve just been studying for the past three years. I admit, now working within social media I’m embarrassed to say, I totally overlooked it as a tool for job searching. But when you look at the statistics it’s hard to believe we don’t think to do it sooner.

According to the Adecco Global Study 2014 for Social Recruiting, social media will increasingly become the new go to job marketplace however, the potential of its impact isn’t always clear to job seekers. In 2013 more than 50 per cent of recruitment activity involved the use of the internet which then rose to just over 60 percent in 2014. So it’s clear to see that the use of the internet is increasing in the world of recruitment but how far exactly has social media played a part in this?

Well according to Adecco 5 out of 10 job seekers use social media for their job searches. This is pretty low when you think that there are around 2.2 billion active social network users in the world and are using it in their day to day lives for socialising and keeping up to date with the news etc. This indicates to me that most users are unaware of the impact of the professional relevance of their social networks as 7 out of 10 recruiters admit to using social media to check out a candidate’s online presence before putting them forward for a role.

But when you look at the figures of people who actually use social media to look for job roles it all becomes rather impressive. Jobvite recently surveyed online job seekers and found that 76% of people found their job through Facebook. They also found that 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to recruit but only 36% of job seekers use it. That’s not all, 92% of companies admitted to using social media for recruiting directly, and that doesn’t just include LinkedIn either. So it’s safe to say that if you’re not using social media when looking for work you are definitely missing a trick.

So in order for you not to make the same mistake that I did, here are a few tips that I’ve picked up along my social media journey.

Get yourself on LinkedIn

I know it’s quite hard to get established on LinkedIn as a graduate when you don’t have any business connections or work experience to put on there. Try to just focus on your achievements at university for now and the rest will slowly build.

Read our blog here for LinkedIn tips to land your dream graduate job.

Let people know that you are job seeking

If you don’t put it out there then how are they to know you’re looking? Sharing that you are looking for work on social media can open up a lot of doors. People say that the best jobs come through who you know, not what you know.

See yourself as a product

You need to brand yourself. Like I said earlier a lot of companies and recruiters use social media to look at your online presence and try to find out what you are really like. You need to, like with a product, brand yourself. What do you think of when you hear the word Nike? I hear a highly successful company which sells the latest trends in sports wear. So try to think what would you want to them to hear when they say your name.

Network with prospective employers

There are two different routes to go down with this. Firstly is to identify the prospective employers you want to connect with and secondly is to start to start to communicate with them. You want to get across your passion for the industry and, again, brand yourself to them.

Want some personal advice how to get a job? Contact our Searchability team on
01244 567 567/ [email protected] for all our latest graduate job roles or for hints and tips from helping build your online presence to what to say at the interview.

 

Rachael Roberts – Digital Campaign Coordinator, Searchability

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