Social Networking

Social networking has changed the way we communicate. For many companies, it has changed the hiring process and has made it easier to find potential candidates for positions better suited for them. It now allows recruiters to go through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. “Social networking technology is one of the best things to happen to recruited--- ever,” Frank Langfit writes in his article Social Networking Boosts Job Recruiting.” With respect to this article being written in 2006, about 11 years ago, there have been significant changes to how people use these social networking platforms. Now with LinkedIn in the mix, it makes recruiting, job finding, and networking easier, accessibly, and almost instantaneous. Another job website is Glassdoor.com which allows people to look up positions and companies, rate them, and leave reviews about their experience. I have actually found myself using Glassdoor a few times when looking up internships and companies to see what would be a good fit for me.

While using these social networks, it is important to remember privacy. What do you want your employers to see and what do you not want them to see? According to Marc Perry’s article Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do, there has been a significant increase in changed privacy settings. He emphasizes that the majority of young adults have increased privacy settings in the last 5 years. This is very important when managing your information because your future job can potentially look you up on Facebook. If they see something that is unappealing or deemed inappropriate then you might as well say goodbye to that opportunity. That can be considered the a dark side of social networking.