The Value of Social Media

by Dave Luth on August 11th, 2010

At MicroTrain we've been preaching the value of using social media in your job search.   Of course it is a relatively common theme in the job search community, with the proliferation of social media it is only natural to try to use it to your advantage. 

But does it really help?  To answer that, let me tell a quick story.

I have a good friend who lives in Milwaukee, and  who is unfortunately someone I don't talk to nearly enough.  A few weeks ago I saw that he had posted on his Facebook page that due to his company's recent merger his job was being eliminated.   Always rough, but with his 3 month old baby and unemployment at 10%, that is especially brutal.  Of course everyone posted comments on his Facebook page saying how sorry they were, but as the old saying goes 'sorry don't feed the bulldog' .   

After offering my condolences, I asked him what kind of job he was looking.  He said he was looking for a marketing position, with an emphasis on project management and then shot me over a PDF of his resume that I would share should the need arise.   I told him I'd keep my eyes and ears open and see what comes up in my network of contacts. 

 Fast forward to the other day, when I received my weekly Linked In email update.  Normally this is a quick read, as I just browse to see who has gotten new jobs, promotions, or connected with people that I may want to add to my network.  But this week, I saw that one of my contacts who also happens to be in Milwaukee, posted that she is looking for a marketing professional with project management experience.  Small world indeed.    So I sent her an email, told her the story and attached my friend's resume.  She responded immediately, saying that on paper he looks perfect and that she would touch base with him right away.  I asked him how it went, and he confirmed that he has an interview scheduled for Friday. 

Now of course he may not actually get the job - interviewing is a whole other part of the job search process. But clearly social networking helped him even find this opportunity.  Without his Facebook notice I wouldn't have known he was looking for work.  And without my other friend's comment on Linked In  I wouldn't have known that she was looking to fill this position. Multiply that by the hundreds of people you have in your network, and its pretty easy to see how it can lead to some opportunities that may not have been there otherwise when you use social media effectively in your job search.

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I attended a resume writing seminar & conducted mock phone interviews with a Microtrain career counselor. These two activities gave me a leg up on distinguishing myself from all the other people looking for work. Since the career counselor's at Microtrain had a track record of getting people hired, their insight and positive past experiences helped me tremendously in getting hired with a Cisco Voice Systems Integrator in the Chicago area. I was hired as a Cisco Voice Tech Engineer with a starting salary of $65,000 / year with a Cisco voice systems reseller located in the Chicagoland area. Microtrain was very instramental in making this a reality. From expediting my WIA grant, to providing excellent hands-on training from knowledgable instructors I was able to achieve becoming certified with my CCNP. Microtrain's career services was the final catalyst in connecting me with this company by communicating with them on my behalf and with me in setting up the interview. One week later and I was hired. No joke. Thanks Microtrain!

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PMP Certification Training, Lombard, 2008

I was laid off for many months and not really getting many callbacks for my resume and no job offers. After I put the letters PMP on it, not only did I see an increase in quantity, but also quality of interviews. I had been spinning my wheels for 5 months, and after the PMP went on, I had 2 job offers in 6 weeks. It really was the "golden ticket"

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