A blog was recently posted on Fast Company by a job recruiting expert/ Internet skeptic, titled “Can Facebook Really Replace Employment Firms?”
Well, did Match.com or eHarmony replace your best friend trying to set you up with “someone that would be perrrrrfect!?” No.
BUT what match.com and eHarmony did do was give us singles a little hope that there is a vast supply of people out there looking for relationships. Sometimes Internet dating works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Most importantly here though is that no commitment is made off of an Internet profile. Until a social ceremonial site is launched whereby two computer-savvy individuals can walk their alter-egos down a virtual aisle while guests can click on a link to watch the e-wedding, we still have to meet the person who’s behind the screen and go through the process of dating.
It’s the same with employment firms. Even if Mark Zuckerberg created the SUPER-POKING-JOB-SEEKING-WALL application for Facebook, eventually the candidate has to go into the office and go through the process of applying for the job.
So shouldn’t we view social networking as a gift to employment firms? Not a threat! Decision makers who are hiring at non-recruiting companies don’t really want to design their profiles to appease the 20-something job seeker anyway. They’re more interested in posting pictures of their kids for their long lost friends that they just reconnected with, on Facebook nonetheless, to see.
Employment firms have an opportunity now to explore these Internet tools to better their jobs so that they can better the jobs of their clients and their candidates.
So far, it’s working for us at EntreQuest. Our networks on Facebook and LinkedIn have brought in outstanding Truby candidates for our clients.
No comment on the dating candidates the Internet is bringing us singles though…
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Inspired by “Can Facebook Really Replace Employment Firms?” By Tom Stern. Fast Company. FastCompany.com.
Reading Tom Stern’s blog just gave me the desire to sit the guy down, give him some water and a brown paper bag to breathe into, and just tell the guy to RELAX! He talks about social networking as a means to find a job like it’s the apocalypse. His blog screams “THE END IS NEAR!” He describes Facebook or LinkedIn as the end of face to face contact in the job search. I ask: why is that such a bad thing? Now companies don’t have to interview a hundred people to find that only four are qualified. Recruiting companies, like EntrQuest, can make their own facebook pages or LinkedIn profiles so that potential candidates can easily contact them. The lack of face to face contact that results from social networking only cancels out the beginning stages of the process. The main interview is still very much in the picture. So…what’s Tom so worked up about? Companies should embrace this new internet age and use it to its full potential.
I’d agree that Facebook, as an example, is a great way to expand the effectiveness of search firms. If nothing else the social media outlets give people the opportunity to connect with other professionals that may know things about organizations, their people, and/or their culture that will provide critical insights when considering where to take one’s career.
To view these tools as a threat is very shortsighted, to say the least.
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