Today’s Job seekers have never been more empowered as they are today. The sheer amount of tools, advice and sites they have at their disposal is large. This is especially true when it comes to using social networking sites like Facebook and Linkedin.
Although each of these sites are used for different purposes (personal vs professional), they do have something in common to aid your job search. They both tell you what company your friends currently work at. That is why I created tool called Jobs With Friends to help you leverage that important data so you can more easily get referred.
When it comes to getting hired, statistics prove that if you know someone at the company you want to work at you are much more likely to be hired.
Consider these statistics I dug up:
- Referred candidates are twice as likely to land an interview (source: NY Times)
- Referred candidates are three to four times more likely to be hired (source: CareerXRoads)
- Only 7% of applicants come from referrals, but referrals account for about 40% of hires (source: JobVite)
So you can see how important it is to know someone who works there when applying for a job. It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved. The employee who refers you is likely to get a financial reward, the employer gets a new employee they trust and you, well you get a steady paycheck!
More job seekers need to take advantage of tools like Facebook to make their networking more personal. But remember these are just tools. It’s up to you to ask for the referral or make a connection request. In the end, it’s still just people hiring people!
Author Bio
Chris Russell is the Founder & CEO of CareerCloud LLC. He is widely considered the ‘Mad Scientist of Online Recruiting. Follow him on twitter @chrisrussell. Helping job seekers is his passion.
