I don’t have a whole lot to add to this well-considered piece in today’s Journal which basically equates social networking sites with reference pages on resumes with heaps of additional names, numbers and emails:
Traditionally, recruiters call references after a thorough face-to-face interview. The contacts are provided by the job seekers and are typically people who are likely to provide a positive recommendation.
But for a growing number of job seekers (LinkedIn now has 14.8 million members), networking sites have “completely changed everything,” says Dennis Smith, senior recruiting manager at T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. Now, recruiters can access entire personal networks, says Mr. Smith, who checks Facebook, LinkedIn and Jobster for mutual connections before he interviews a candidate in person.
What do people say about you when you’re not around? The answer to that question matters much more online. Just be discreet about how much time you spend on Facebook.
