Marielle Kelly - Social Media for Your Student and Graduate Job Search

Social Media for Your Student and Graduate Job Search

Social Media for Your Student and Graduate Job Search

Marielle Kelly

Marielle Kelly 2016

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First published 2016 by PALGRAVE

Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave is a global imprint of the above companies and is represented throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 9781137472373 paperback

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank every job seeker and student I have worked with over the years. They have all taught me so much and given me the motivation to write this book. Im grateful to each person who has played a part in getting this book from a germ of an idea to a finished product. I particularly want to thank na Burns, without whose support this book would never have been written. Thank you to my family and friends who let me disappear for a while and are still talking to me, and to my colleagues for all their encouragement. Thank you also to Johnny Campbell, who first got me hooked on the incredible potential of social media to help people get to where they want to be in their careers.

Introduction: Becoming social media savvy

Contents

Social media has changed the face of recruitment. With over half of employers using social media to screen candidates when they apply, and 94 per cent using it to locate new hires, it pays to make good use of LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms in your job search.

Why you need to be socially savvy

Theres a big difference between having a social media account and being socially savvy. A basic, public Facebook profile in which you share the gory details of what you got up to on Saturday night is not going to make employers view you as a great potential employee. Neither is a half-hearted LinkedIn page. Social media for your job search is all about connecting with people and communicating who you are and what interests you. You can do this by creating content such as updates and images, and interacting with status updates and posts created by others. Youll learn how to do all those things as you go through this book.

Managing one or more social media profile will have an impact on what employers see if they put your name into a search engine, which they are increasingly doing. Give yourself a helping hand by making sure that what they find says Hire me and not Run a mile from me. Dont expect social media to be a magic wand that will single-handedly lead to jobs falling at your feet. Used correctly, however, it can be a great ally in your job search. It can help you to uncover job opportunities, meet people who can give you career advice and research information to stand out from other applicants in a crowded graduate marketplace.

The first half of this guide will take you through everything you need to know about why you should be using social media in your job search. You might be tempted to skip ahead to the second half, which details how to use key social media platforms, but its important to get a good overall understanding of how they can help you and how to make the most of them. , youll work on defining your brand and then explore how to communicate that through your social media accounts.

In covers the importance of making connections to help you choose a career, as well as how to prepare better applications. It will guide you through finding people with whom to connect and how to do that in a way that works.

The second half of the book, as you set out on your search for an internship or graduate role. Whether you are a current student or a graduate, looking for a part-time job, summer internship or graduate job, the advice in these pages is for you.

Social media anxiety

Setting up your online profiles and promoting yourself so blatantly may seem daunting at first. Dont panic. You dont need to do everything at once. Its a good idea to gradually and systematically build up your online presence. Read through the chapters carefully to build your understanding of what makes a great social media profile and to build your confidence before taking the plunge.

If the thought of having too much information available about you online is holding you back, rest assured that its completely within your control to choose how much or how little to share. Every platform allows you to set restrictive privacy settings, so you can keep things away from public view until youre happy with the profiles you have developed.

Take time to go through the exercises in this guide. They have been designed to help you get to grips with the key aspects of using social media for job searching. Have a tablet or laptop to hand as you go through this book; youll need to go online to complete many of the exercises. All the social media platforms in this guide have mobile apps, but they tend to have less functionality than the desktop versions, so you will get a better sense of each of them on a tablet or laptop. Youll also want to check out the different websites that you will be guided through as you go along.

Companion website

For everyone

The companion website for this book includes a range of features that will support you as you go through the different elements covered here. You will find printable worksheets associated with some of the exercises. Social media is ever evolving, and the workings of each of the platforms discussed in this book have a tendency to change often. Keep an eye on the website, where youll find up-to-the-minute explanations and details about any major changes that might occur across the platforms. You can access the companion site here: www.palgrave.com/companion/palgrave-career-skills

For educators

In addition to the worksheets available on the website, you will also find a series of free, customisable PowerPoint presentations that you can use as a basis for class sessions with your students.

Chapter

Social media for your job search

Contents

You probably use social media every day, several times a day, to connect with friends, see what people you know are up to and share your own updates and photographs with others. This is the purely social side of social media, and it might seem like this is all it can do. Look a bit deeper. There are so many ways you can use it to make your job search more effective.