Better than CareerBuilder: Facebook Pages

Allow me to provide you with a brief history lesson.

Sometime not too long ago, circa 1990’s, when someone was displaced from their employer they would receive what was then referred to as a “pink slip” which nowadays – to be politically correct – is called as a notice of separation or severance agreement.

Before the days of the internet – much less social media – a newly “pink slipped” worker would go stand in an unemployment line for hours whilst waiting for a social worker to process their unemployment benefits claim.

The next logical step would be to head off to an outplacement firm to perhaps fine tune your resume, hone your interviewing skills and if you were lucky enough maybe even land a temporary job.

Who would’ve thought, eh?

Fast forward a couple of years, still before Facebook or LinkedIn was ever dreamed upon, then came the “oh so cool” dinosaur era of the job board.

A website which displays a plethora of employment listings on the World Wide Web.

“You mean to tell me that I don’t have to open up the Sunday paper and get my fingers full of smelly black ink anymore?”

“The days of highlighting job ads in the classified section and then running over to Kinko’s to fax in my resume are gone? Wow, this is cool!”

Seems like just yesterday right?

Enough with the history lesson, let’s talk about today – better yet let’s talk about right now.

It’s evident by the video that I posted above that times have changed.

Thank you social media.

Back in May I wrote an article called “Top Facebook Pages: Why Facebook is the Most Important Social Media for Job Seekers”

I suggest that you read it before going any further.

Most people today are not losing their jobs and going into a panic over it.

Heck, it’s almost 2011 – I can’t believe that I just wrote that – this isn’t 2008 anymore.

AIG isn’t being bailed out. Lehman Brothers is long gone.

We’re beyond talking about how Web 2.0 is going to be a game changer, it already is.

With the evolution of social media, and an over abundance of resources via the web, we’re already in a new era which features a wiser, smarter, and more assertive American worker than ever.

For example, what now seems like a long time ago but in reality it’s only been two years, I got this idea – a calling – to stand up and help the everyday American worker like me find new employment.

Again, thanks to social media and my own personal discovery of how to use it effectively.

Jobs today are being found through relationship building, and here’s the why.

Job boards – again the pre-historic dinosaur reference – are quickly become non-existent as quickly as print media.

Today, who’s opening up their local newspaper to discover job leads? Nobody!

Within the next decade what’s going to be happening to job boards? Some will figure “it” out, while others will succumb to change.

Which is a precursor to my Friday column for this week, “The Weekly Buzz: What Monster Acquiring Hot Jobs Really Means – Wake up!”

Let’s face it, job boards are in fact one dimensional whereas social media is multi-dimensional and gives you complete control to interact with other end users.

You know the good old saying, “knowledge is power”?

Social media gives you the “power” and control to reach out to a Fortune 500 CEO if you really wanted to go to that extent and do it.

Job boards, only allows you to submit your resume to a virtually unknown person wherever they might be and provide you with the hope that you’ll receive a call back.

I don’t know about you but I rather test my luck at inviting a Fortune 500 CEO, or even a local Recruiter, out to coffee any day of the week than dive into a pool with hundreds of other people just like me.

So here’s where I’m going with this.

You’re not going to find a job just by being on LinkedIn, on Twitter or using Facebook to communicate with old pals.

Granted, you’re not going to be very successful either by applying blindly via job boards and waiting for the phone to ring.

Write down these three critical components: a) branding b) networking c) following-up

In the past I’ve said that looking for a job is no different than dating, it is.

Now, social networking is similar to playing a game of chess, mind you that it’s also like playing roulette. Every move that you make is critical to taking that next step.

If you’re looking for a job, you need to be on Facebook – I’m serious.

You must utilize all forms of social media for purposes of building your own professional brand and expanding your network of influencers and business contacts.

If you think that “who you know” is the end-all key to your success then I wish you the best of luck – “Who knows YOU” is really the difference maker.

Don’t listen to all these people that constantly say “LinkedIn is professional” and “Facebook is personal”

If they want to keep their business contact completely separate then that’s on them, at least you know that they won’t be coming to YOU for help when times get tough and their out looking for work.

I could really go on for hours talking about the social media vs. job board debate but I’m not going to – it’s really a catch 22, job boards in my opinion still serve their purpose in the whole scope of looking for work or looking to hire however in these times that we’re in it’s critical that job seekers find ways to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd as much as humanly possible.

On a closing note, in the month of August JobsDirectUSA.com – a job board – drew over 70,000 unique visitors that searched for jobs in the U.S, our busiest month in our 2-year history.  Despite the fact that we don’t have deep pockets like Monster or CareerBuilder, we have a strong social media following and it shows.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Carlos Gil

CEO / Founder

JobsDirectUSA

Twitter: @CarlosGil83

Check out the new Facebook career pages from JobsDirectUSA.

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