Three days, 20 words, new job

Most recently, Twitter has become a hub for job listings with the launch of search engines, including TwitterJobSearch.com and TweetMyJOBS.com, making it easier to sift through the chatter to find jobs. People are also forming “tweetups,” or networking events. Grass-roots movements such as JobAngels, a Twitter feed started in January by human-resources consultant Mark Stelzner, help connect unemployed individuals with volunteers willing to help them find work.

Other job seekers are creating their own promotional ads on Facebook to target recruiters from specific companies or regions, but they’re getting mixed results.

Recruiters get on board

Companies are jumping on the social-networking bandwagon, too. With recruiting budgets down, 61 percent of 450 corporate and human-resources professionals are utilizing them to obtain new employees, according to a January survey conducted by Standout Jobs and PBP Media. In June, recruiters and human-resource professionals gathered at the first Social Recruiting Summit at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Not all social-networking job-hunting stories have a happy ending.

After getting an offer in March, one job hunter posted a Twitter message: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating work.”

A Cisco employee saw her tweet and responded: “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” Media outlets immediately picked up the Twitter conversation and the job hunter’s Twitter account was deleted.

Although her ultimate job fate was never revealed, the incident serves as a cautionary tale in the era of social networking. Companies aren’t merely using the Internet to find new employees, they’re also using it to screen the candidates they’re considering. Social networks, in particular, offer a rich vein for firms to mine.

In a September 2008 survey of 31,000 employers, 22 percent said they use social-networking sites to evaluate candidates and 9 percent said they planned on using social networks to screen candidates, according to CareerBuilder, an online job site.

This means that what job seekers tweet and the Facebook interests they list may damage their reputation.

“Many, many candidates are destroying their chances to get a job because of what they have posted,” says Brad Karsh, president and founder of JobBound, a Chicago career-consulting firm. Before conducting a job interview for his own firm, Mr. Karsh says he once found that a candidate had listed several inappropriate hobbies on his Facebook profile, including smoking marijuana.

How to avoid online traps

To avoid this job-hunting blunder, Ms. Doyle, who writes about job searching for About.com, has one rule of thumb: “If you don’t want your grandma or mom to see it, don’t post it online.”

In a time of Twésumés and “friending” on Facebook to find a job, it’s important to have a balance between traditional job-hunting methods and social networking.

“Social networks are wonderful at helping you seek out connections,” says Karsh. Still, he stresses that meeting and networking with people face to face are just as important. So are ensuring that your résumé is typo-free and writing a good cover letter, Doyle adds.

“These [networks]are tools to enhance your job search. Don’t rely on them,” she says. “Go back to the basics, too.”

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