The normally staid online magazine Slate ran a fascinating article recently about the impact on job searching of”Web 2.0″ — social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

It’s largely anecdotal, but there are some numbers worth noting. For example:

Every year, the employment consulting firm CareerXRoads conducts a survey of HR managers at large companies. The 2009 survey shows that just 12 percent of recent new hires were found through job boards, while 27 percent were found through referrals—that is, people who work at the company or who have connections to the company recommend the largest share of new people. There’s a word for this sort of job-seeking: networking.

In other words, answering ads on Monster.ca or Workopolis, while not a totally useless activity, is far less worthwhile than actually connecting with people.

This is the “hidden” job market: jobs that aren’t advertised, that are filled by people who had some connection to the people doing the hiring.

Which is where social networking enters the picture. In the old days, you had to “know” people, even be “friends” with them. But nowadays those terms can be pretty broad. Being a “friend” on Facebook isn’t the same as being a friend in real life, but it’s still a connection.

In other words, while traditional job search methods shouldn’t be abandoned, it’s time to open up your mind to the reality of the hyper-networked social communities on the Internet. Friends you make there might just get you a job.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 12:39 am and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.