Social Networks: Good source for career development

Is it good to depend on social media for career development?

If you read the recent posting of Mark Zuckerberg, it is proven fact that Facebook created more than 4.5 million jobs and more than $225 billion of economic activity in 2014. The study was released by researchers at Deloitte looking at Facebook's impact on the global economy.

Facebook community alone is creating a lot of jobs and economic opportunity around the world. LinkedIn is the professional networking platform to connect to the millions of professionals across the globe. Using this, you can find jobs, participate in online communities, and share your experience/insights.

Twitter is another social media platform that can be helpful in making career-related contacts. Most companies have a presence on Twitter. You can tweet companies or individuals that you are interested in learning more about, and respectfully talk about whatever they have posted. Wordpress blog can be useful to share knowledge and to build followers.

Sending a video recording to the employer expressing you is always better than a two page CV. The same video can be uploaded in YouTube and share with employers of your choice. Quora is Q&A based online community where anyone can post any questions and comment on the questions posted by someone else. It gives an impression to the reader the level of understanding you've on that particular topic.

“In today's competitive job market, it will be the resourceful and self-motivated participant in social media that will find the perfect job. Recruiters, companies, hiring managers and job-seekers are turning to social media to find their desired target. Dear Sir, I have done my electrical engineering and joined as a personal assistant job. Later I found it's not my cup of tea. So, please suggest me how to set up a concrete career plan.

Lot of young aspirants think that once they get into a first job, then everything is easy and can settle in life. I personally feel that getting a first job might not be difficult, if you've clear about your career plans. However, managing your career, growing in it is a challenging thing. Majority of the youngsters opt for random jobs because of frustration, pressure, disappointment with their routine job search and finally come back to the cross roads to look for alternatives. Having mere degrees/certificates will not alone let you get a job, it’s important to understand your strengths interest.

So, it's always better to set your career road map before you step into any job. Here are the simple steps you can follow...

• Identify your short & long term goals: You can't start mapping your path if you do not know the destination. So, first identify where you would like to see yourself in next 2/3 years of time. However, be flexible to change your career plans as required and open to learn new skills.
• Find out your strengths and areas to improve: It is important to learn new strengths which will help you to sustain and grow. Do not compromise on the skills required to cope up with that selected area and market dynamics. Make a list of the skills you have right now and the areas to improve further. Self learning is the best path to choose. You may like to find a guide/mentor with whom you're comfortable.
• Action Plan: It's very critical aspect of your entire career road map setting. If you feel your goals are big then bring them down to smaller tasks and set timelines for each task. You can't have vague plans, it should be SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bounded.
• Identify your target industry, domain & companies: Once you're clear about your area of interest and strengths, the next step is to find out where to start your journey.
• Leave your comfort zone; build your network and always try to be on the right track.
• Periodically cross check your progress, what you have planned and what you achieved and then take corrective action plan.

What if the interviewer asks me what other job vacancies have you applied for? Which companies have you spoken to? I feel uncomfortable to answer such questions. Please suggest me to handle such questions during interview?

It is likely to find out how much you're interested in their company. Otherwise, it should not be their business, there's nothing wrong - a job seeker exploring opportunities with other companies. If you try to be honest and fair enough and reveal everything, you might lose that opportunity.

If you have not applied for other jobs, be honest and say it is the start of your job search. Otherwise in a polite way, you could say "Sorry, I do not disclose that information". However, the best solution is you can simply tell them that you're also exploring opportunities with other companies but felt this would be your first preference (if you feel so).

By:kamal pabba