How Social Networking
Students, Career Services,
By Kimberly Shea and Jill Wesley
Google, blogs, podcasts, RSS readers,
IM-ing, social networking sites (such as
Facebook, Friendster, Myspace, Ryze,
LinkedIn, Flickr, LiveJournal, and
Photobucket)—do any of these sound
familiar? If so, are you a user? While
you’ve probably used Google to look up
something or read a blog, it’s possible
you’re not familiar with social networking sites.
In discussing the above with other
career services professionals and employers, it was discovered that some are feeling behind the times when it comes to the
use of online technologies by students.
However, given that many job-search
activities and networking activities now
occur online, career services practitioners should explore how students and
employers use various online tools.
It was decided to research which technologies students are using, how their
use of these tools may affect their job
searches, and how well students’ understanding of which online tools employers
are using to screen candidates matches
what recruiters are actually doing.
This article shares the research results, focusing on what you need to
know to optimize your school’s advisement or organization’s recruitment of
undergraduates. Also included is background on some commonly used
Internet tools, thoughts on emerging
trends, and suggestions on developing
programming to help students understand how to use Internet tools effectively in their job searches.
To gather information regarding the
role of technology in the job search,
two surveys were created, one for stu26/JOURNAL
dents and the other for employers. The
student survey consisted of 10 questions, ranging from the types of technologies students use to whether or
not they thought prospective employers used social networking sites to
evaluate candidates. From September
2005 through April 2006, 124 surveys
were completed by Purdue University
students visiting its Center for Career
Opportunities (CCO) for drop-in assistance or appointments.
How Students Use
Online Applications
One overarching theme uncovered
is that the students focus on the
online technologies that allow them
to connect with others and to share
information about themselves, rather
than on those that could help them to
learn more about potential employers. The most popular online technologies among student survey participants were focused on social interactions: instant messaging (90.3
percent) and networking sites (81.5
percent). At the bottom of the list
were those that would help the students to gather information such as
RSS (Really Simple Syndication Readers) (3.2 percent) and podcasts (3.2
percent). (For definitions, see the
glossary on page 31).
Although instant messaging was the
most popular online technology among
the students surveyed, this article focuses on social networking sites. Given
their explosive growth in popularity
and potential to have a tremendous
effect on how job searches are conducted,
it is crucial to continue to expand the
dialogue within the profession regarding
the positive and negative aspects of
these sites.
Social Networking Sites
Of the myriad social networking sites
floating in cyberspace, there are two
that career services professionals
should become familiar with—MySpace
and Facebook. But there is a caveat:
With the popularity of sites such as
Photobucket and LiveJournal that
allow users more options for including a
variety of media, career services professionals should be prepared for the
chance that MySpace and Facebook
could be passé tomorrow.
At two years old, MySpace is a
relatively senior player in the social
networking domain and is currently more
popular among the general public than
is Facebook. One reason for MySpace’s
greater popularity may be that it is open
to everyone over the age of 14, while
Facebook restricts users to those with
an e-mail account that ends in “.edu.” In
October 2005, MySpace was the fourth
busiest site on the Internet. From October 1 to October 31, the number of unique
visitors to MySpace increased by 12
percent to 24 million, and the site saw
nearly twice the traffic of Google in the
same time period.1 Two months later, it
boasted 32.2 million unique visitors, a
number that was reported to be increasing by one million new members each
week.2 According to Nielsen/Netratings,
MySpace experienced a 752 percent
increase in unique visitors in 2005,
SPRING 2006
SUMMER
Sites Affect
and Employers
“Being online” used to mean that you had a computer
with an Internet connection. Now, it also can mean that
positive or negative information about you is visible to
anyone who has access to a computer with an Internet
connection. Students—and other job seekers—who set
up profiles on social networking sites should be aware
of the possible consequences.
SUMMER 2006
JOURNAL/27
making it the second fastest-growing
web brand.3
In July 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s
News Corporation acquired MySpace
for $580 million.4 Early in 2006,
Murdoch announced that search, email, and telephone service will be
added to the site, moving it in the
direction of becoming more like a web
portal, such as Yahoo!, than a traditional social networking site.5
Facebook, arguably MySpace’s
biggest competitor, was founded
by Harvard undergraduate Mark
Zuckerberg and launched to the public
on February 4, 2004.6 By January 2006,
it had expanded to all schools in the
country and had started allowing high
school students to become members.
Each month, more than 12.4 million
unique users visit the site, making it
seventh in terms of overall traffic on
the entire web, one spot behind Google.
It is estimated that approximately 67
percent of users log in each day and
spend an average of 18 minutes per
day on the site.7
In 2005, Facebook experienced a 530
percent increase in unique visitors,
making it the third fastest growing web
brand.8 Purdue has experienced the dynamic growth of Facebook first-hand,
as these usage numbers have been updated repeatedly since the authors
started talking about Facebook in presentations in Fall 2005.
In the survey of Purdue students’
use of online technologies, Facebook
was by far the most widely used social
networking site. Of the 81.5 percent of
students reporting that they had accounts on social networking sites, 95
percent of those were Facebook accounts. MySpace came in a distant second with less than 10 percent of the
same group of students listing themselves as users.
Finding Personal
Information Online
In addition to learning more about
which social networking sites were
popular with students, the authors
wanted to explore if students were actively investigating what information
was available about them online. Therefore, the authors included what was
thought to be a basic question on the
survey: Had the students used a search
engine, such as Google, to look up their
own names? It was expected that the
percentage of Purdue’s technologically
savvy students that had “Googled”
themselves would be very high, more
than 90 percent. Surprisingly, only 67
percent had, and this percentage was
close to the percentage of students (74
percent) who thought that employers
might “Google” them.
Another goal of the survey was to
find if there was any evidence that the
Kimberley Shea is a career services consultant with Purdue
University’s Center for Career Opportunities. Previously, she
ran an internship program at Purdue’s Discovery Park that
placed interns with start-up companies in Indiana. She also was
a career coordinator in the career services office at the University of Arizona. She received a master’s degree in higher education administration, student personnel services from the
University of Arizona and an undergraduate degree in political
science from the University of Northern Iowa.
Jill Wesley is a career services consultant with Purdue
University’s Center for Career Opportunities. Previously, she
was the associate director of academic and student services
with Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work, and
was a research associate for Korn/Ferry International. She
holds an M.B.A. in management and human resources from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in
English from Dartmouth College.
28/JOURNAL
students were thinking about how the
personal information that was out there
about them would contribute to the
development of their professional personas. Through the survey, the majority of students (95 percent) said that
they felt they would be comfortable
with what an employer would find out
about them through a Google search.
Given that nearly 33 percent of students had failed to conduct their own
Google self-searches, they would have
no idea whether any personal reference
was positive, negative, or if there was
any information out there about them
at all. The difference in these two numbers seems to present a gap in perception versus actual job-search preparedness that will be important for career
services professionals to address. At this
point, the authors can only hypothesize as to why this gap in belief and
action exists. Perhaps students are overlooking that others may be posting
things about them of which they are
unaware.
In comparison, among those students that thought employers were
using search engines to screen potential employees, fewer students thought
that employers would use social networking sites for the same purpose.
This matched the anecdotes career
services had heard from the undergraduates that work in the CCO. In answering whether they thought employers used social networking sites as a
screening tool, respondents were split
down the middle. However, their answers varied significantly when asked
whether or not they would be willing to
show their profiles on social networking sites to potential employers. The
majority (80 percent) had wide-ranging
opinions. Some respondents said that
they would revise their profiles somewhat before letting others inspect them,
but others were unwilling to share their
profiles.
Of the students surveyed, 28 percent thought that employers do check
social networking profiles and reported
that they would want to make some
revision to the profiles before sharing
continued
them with an employer.
SUMMER 2006
PERSONAL INTERNET PRESENCE
Returned to Sender
.
Job Seeker Self-Audit
What is the e-mail address you use on your resume?
This e-mail is: q Permanent or q Expires in the (near) future
Google Yourself
In your opinion, this address is: q Professional q Funny
$
Have you used a search engine to see what information about you is available on the Internet?
q Regularly
q Occasionally
q Once
q Never
If you have, were you comfortable with what you found? q Yes q No
Is There Anybody Out There? :
Do you belong to a social networking site (e.g. Facebook or Friendster)? q Yes q No
For each site you belong to, would you be comfortable if an employer were to see your
Profile?
q Definitely
q Give me a half-hour
q
Pictures?
q Definitely
q Give me a half-hour
q
Groups?
q Definitely
q Give me a half-hour
q
Friends’ Comments?
q Definitely
q Give me a half-hour
q
Friend’s Profiles?
q Definitely
q Give me a half-hour
q
Pssst…Want a Resume?
Employers
Employers
Employers
Employers
Employers
check
check
check
check
check
Facebook?!?
Facebook?!?
Facebook?!?
Facebook?!?
Facebook?!?
3
Do you have a resume posted on any of these career web sites:
q CCO Express
q Monster.com
q Careerbuilder
q Other
Is your resume on this(these) site(s) current?
q Yes
q No
For each place that you have it posted, are you familiar and comfortable with the site’s privacy policy? q Yes q No q I don’t know
¢ If you answered “No,” circle the sites for which you are unfamiliar with the privacy policy.
Has your resume been posted on the Internet by your academic department? q Yes q No q I don’t know
Do you belong to any student organizations or other groups?
Have any of these groups posted your resume on their sites? q Yes q No q I don’t know
¢ If you answered “Yes” or “I don’t know,” circle those organizations.
If your resume is posted on the Internet, do you
– know when the resume will be removed from the site(s)? q Yes q No If you answered “No,” note that above where relevant.
– do you have all of your contact information included? q Yes q No If you answered “Yes,” note that above where relevant.
You Are What You Type 7
If you have your own web site or blog, would you be comfortable if a potential employer were to read its content? q Yes q No
Have you ever discussed a company, interview, job, etc. on your blog or web site? q Yes q No
Do you follow the “If you wouldn’t want to read it in the front page of the newspaper, don’t put it in an e-mail” rule? q Yes q No
Action Plan
Based on your answers above, are you comfortable with the image of yourself that you are projecting through the Internet? q Yes q No
If you answered “No,” what steps do you plan to take to increase your level of comfort with your personal Internet presence?
• First, consider the areas (Google, posted resumes, social networking sites, etc.) where you have identified potential problems.
• What could you fix immediately?
• What is going to take some research?
• What might take ongoing maintenance?
• Is there anything that you would like to discuss with a career consultant in the career center?
If you answered “Yes,” think about what strategic steps you may be interested in taking to improve your web presence.
Goals and Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Center for Career Opportunities, www.cco.purdue.edu. Used with permission.
SUMMER 2006
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Too Much (Personal)
Information
Throughout the course of surveying
students and exploring the various social networking sites as users, the authors discovered that students were putting a significant amount of personal
information online and often failing to
show sound judgment in editing the
content that was readily available. Speaking anecdotally, many students do not
think about possible future influence
of the information they are sharing on
networking web sites. This disconnect
is most apparent on Facebook, where
some students have posted pictures of
underage drinking; joined groups
within the site that have a drinking,
hate, or sex-related focus; and allowed
others to post comments within their
profiles on their status as “party animals.”
Rumors of offers and interviews being pulled have begun to circulate as
these online networking sites become
more mainstream, but, at this point,
these anecdotes are largely unsubstantiated. Therefore, one goal of this research was to determine if potential
employers were using these tools as
screening mechanisms.
What Do
Employers Think?
For the employer perspective on
online tools used in the candidate
screening process, 64 companies attending Purdue job fairs and those participating in Spring 2006 campus recruiting were surveyed. The five-question survey focused on what online
resources employers use to screen candidates and how these tools may have
affected their employment decisions.
Although search engines remain the
most popular method for researching
candidates online (34.6 percent of employers report that they use them in
the screening process), the results of
the employer survey support the authors’ assumption that some employers use online networking sites to
source and research candidates. Nearly
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11.5 percent of those surveyed reported
using these sites to screen candidates.
Overall, 50 percent of respondents reported using some sort of online technology to screen candidates, and 7
percent reported that they do not currently use online technology to screen
candidates, but plan to start.
The authors also wanted to determine if and in what direction the information obtained through these online
tools was influencing employers’ opinions regarding candidates. When
asked if what they had found had influenced their decisions regarding job
candidates, of those that reported
using some online tool to screen candidates, 78 percent reported that it did
have an effect.
Furthermore, of those who reported
that the results did have an effect, 53
percent reported that they had been
positively influenced, 45 percent indicated that they had been influenced in
both positive and negative ways, and 2
percent said that what they had learned
was solely negative in its influence.
Overall, the results of the employer
survey showed that recruiting organizations are online seeking the information that candidates have made publicly available and are using that information in their employment decisions.
Based on group affiliations, pictures,
and personal information found through
these web sites, employers are able to
target candidates that may fit their
organization’s recruiting goals.
In a time of increasing reluctance to
provide references, an additional attraction for recruiting organizations is that
the information found on these sites
can support or discredit that shared by
the candidate during the interview process. This is a tool that employers can
use to get information straight from the
source—the students themselves. Five
minutes on a candidate’s social networking profile can often provide more
information about his or her judgment
than an hour talking with a carefully
chosen reference.
Practical Applications
So what does this all mean for career
services professionals? It is important
to have at least a basic understanding
of the tools that employers are using to
screen candidates. If you have not done
so already, “Google” yourself, your
office, and your university to see what
information can be found in cyberspace.
Capitalize on this opportunity to create
an online presence to assist with your
outreach to students. Consider creating your own profile on the social networking sites that are popular on your
SUMMER 2006
campus to get a better understanding,
from a user’s perspective, of how the
sites function. If you do create your
own profile, the site should allow you
to enter only as much information as
you choose. You should also restrict
your profile so that only those you
select can view your profile until you
are comfortable with your understanding of how the site works.
Once you are set up as a user, try
searching the profiles or groups for
your name or your department. It is
possible to set up fake profiles in most
of the social networking sites, and there
is a chance that there could be a group
that has been organized around an interest in your department.
Educate Your Students
Developing programming to educate
students on the issues related to these
topics is key. Many areas around
Purdue University have begun this
effort. In addition to sessions created
by the CCO, the Dean of Students
Office at Purdue has started a series on
social networking safety.
When the authors held workshops
for students regarding the possible implications of their use of social networking sites, some students felt that
their privacy had been violated. They
ask, “How did they find out about
this?” “How did they get an account?”
and “Why do they care what I do in my
personal life?” Students often seem to
be surprised that employers and staff
members are aware of the networking
sites and can access them.
The CCO’s message regarding the
use of online technologies has been to
help students move toward using these
tools in strategic and proactive ways
and to help them to understand the
importance of posting responsibly.
First, students are encouraged to
“clean up” their profiles, group affiliations, posting walls (an area on a
Facebook profile page where the
person’s friends can post comments),
or anything else that may pose a potential issue. Students are also reminded that web information can be
retained online in many ways; hitting
SUMMER 2006
Glossary
Blog: Blog is short for web log. A web log is a journal or newsletter that is frequently
updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent
the personality of the author or the web site.
www.bytowninternet.com/glossary
Instant Messenger (IM): A software application that allows users to quickly send
text messages and files to other IM users. Examples: MSN Messenger, AOL AIM,
Google Talk, and Yahoo! Messenger.
www.computerhope.com/jargon/i/im.htm
Social Networking Technology: Social networking technology refers to software
and web-based services that enable users to leverage their personal relationships
for networking, hiring, employee referrals, and references. Examples: Friendster,
Facebook, and LinkedIn Jobs.
“Social Networking Recruiting,” Jennifer C. Berkshire, HR Magazine, April 2005
RSS (Real Simple Syndication): RSS is a format for syndicating news and the
content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented
community sites like Slashdot, and personal web logs. But it’s not just for news;
pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated
via RSS.
www.XML.com – What is RSS?
Search Engine: A web-search tool that automatically visits web sites , records and
indexes them within its data base, and generates results based on a user’s search
criteria. Submitting a web site to a search engine usually requires just the page
URL (and often an e-mail address), and optimization techniques are essential for
a web site to be indexed and ranked appropriately by search engines. Examples:
AltaVista, Google, and Lycos.
themarketingbureau.co.nz/Search_Engine_Glossary.htm
Web Portal: A web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and
services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls. The
first web portals were online services, such as America Online (AOL), that provided
access to the web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have
transformed themselves into web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.
www.dir.state.tx.us/taskforce/Surveys/State_Survey/app_b.htm
the “delete” button may not mean that
the information is gone.
On the individual level, Purdue students are encouraged to complete a
“Tech Audit.” (See Personal Internet
Presence: Job Seeker Self-Audit, page
29). This tool can assist students in
evaluating their personal information
that is available through search engines,
networking sites, personal web sites,
and so on, and encourages students to
view the results through the perspective of a potential employer. Students
can then create an action plan for improving their online image and decide
how to use the Internet to enhance the
job search.
Students Mentoring Students
Given that the primary focus of these
sites is to connect students with their
peers, CCO staff members have worked
on developing methods for peer outreach. The CCO employs several undergraduate students who serve as peer
mentors, work on CCO projects, and hold
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could have on the job search have been
posted on the CCO web site. In addition, the CCO staff has started to write
related articles with the goal of having
them included in Purdue’s student
publications.
Career Services
Workshops and Activities
office hours to advise students on basic
job search and CCO services. These
students are ambassadors for the office, and most have accounts on the
social networking sites. The CCO has
worked with these students to educate
them and has looked for outreach opportunities where these ambassadors
could be involved in spreading the message.
Peer mentors can also demonstrate
how these sites can be used in positive
ways. One Purdue student ambassador became an excellent example when
he established the “Career Walk” group
on Facebook. This group focuses on
the job search and creates a community of Purdue job seekers who share
resume, interviewing, and general jobsearch advice.
Students also seem to be paying
attention to articles in the popular press
that focus on the potential dangers of
and advantages to participating in social networking sites. This was apparent when the Purdue Police Department
caught student attention by releasing
to media the fact that officers had created accounts to assist in investigations.9 To capitalize on this, articles
that discuss the effect that these sites
32/JOURNAL
In fall 2005, the CCO offered a workshop series to show students that
Facebook was not as private as they
believed it to be. A spring 2006 series
will focus on improving online presence and using the Internet for a strategic advantage. The CCO hopes to
involve employers in the programming.
Beyond student education, some career centers are taking their own advice
and using these online tools to their
advantage. Staff members create profiles and common interest groups to
use the sites for marketing and programming, and as a venue for discussion on
career-related topics. Purdue recently
posted information about its annual open
house through Facebook’s relatively inexpensive advertisement feature. Using
Facebook to promote programs is a new
venture for the CCO, and staff members
are still in the process of judging the
overall effectiveness. But, cheap online
advertising serves as another example
of the possibilities that come with these
powerful tools.
Other Implications
This article has provided a number
of suggestions for how career services
professionals can work with students
to raise awareness of and help them to
use online tools effectively. What
about the other side of the equation—
recruiters? As previously mentioned,
students and career professionals alike
would benefit from hearing more about
how employers are using search engines and social networking sites to
source and screen candidates. Sharing stories of how online profiles do
or don’t influence employment decisions would be helpful for students
in determining how far they should
go in sharing information on their
profiles. Also, the majority of career
services offices would welcome employer involvement in related educational programming.
Conclusion
Social networking sites are likely to
stay. How these sites affect the job
search and the candidate screening
process is only beginning to be explored and reported, but if trends continue, use is bound to increase and the
effects are likely to be profound. These
sites have both negative and positive
effects on the job searches of college
students. But with the education of
career services professionals, employer
partners, and most importantly, the
students, these social networking sites
could become a valuable tool, not only
in social connections, but in connecting students, employers, and career services offices.
Endnotes
1
Nussbaum, B. Best of 2005. Business Week, 12/19/05, pp. 59-92 (66).
Fine, J. AOL: MySpace Invader. Business Week, 1/30/06, p. 24.
Nielsen/NetRatings Reports the Fastest Growing Web Sites Year-Over-Year Among
Top Internet Properties: Apple, Google and Amazon Take the Lead, 12/20/05.
www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_051220.pdf.
4
Nussbaum, B. pp. 59-92.
5
Maurer, H. The News You Need to Know. Business Week, 1/23/06, p. 30.
6
About Facebook. www.facebook.com/about.php.
7
E-mail from Chris Hughes of facebook.com.
8
Nielsen/NetRatings press release, 12/20/05.
9
Horan, K. Big Ten Police Use Online Tools, The Digital Collegian, 11/10/05,
www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2005/11/11-10-05tdc/11-10-05dnews-10.asp.
2
3
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