The advent and outstanding success of business themed social media sites like Linkedin has literally revolutionized the way we approach not only networking among other like-minded business people but the actual way we search for both work and employees for our businesses.
There are very few employers these days that will not “creep” the profiles of potential employees on social media. And not just LinkedIn, but also personal social media outlets such as Facebook in order to get a sense of the character of a potential recruit before actually hiring them. And yes, a moment of indiscretion posted on Facebook or YouTube can have an adverse effect on your ability to land that important position despite possibly be qualified.
Riding the wave of this paradigm shift are other firms that are capitalizing on the latest technology to offer services to aid in employment seeking that far exceed the pioneers in online job posting such as Elutra and Indeed. These latest advents are not sites at all in the classic sense rather they are apps designed to cut right to the chase. Take “Blonk” for example, riding the wave created by Tinder in the online dating milieu they offer the ability to post your interest in a particular company, accompanied by a 20 second video answering a question designed to elicit a character revealing response, and the company then has the choice to “swipe left or swipe right” in a sense and decide if they would like to further the conversation in more detail, or not. Easy, right? And if it is you desire to remain anonymous when seeking out a new direction in future employment that can be accomplished as well. “Anthology” is an app designed to allow you the ability to look for new position without your current employer finding out.
Think “Ashley Madison” for job seekers. You simply post your current position and the one you are aspiring to and the app seeks matches without any one being the wiser. If your desire to remain anonymous stems more from a perspective of perceived discrimination, then there is an app for you as well. “Switch” is an app that allows you to post your work experience in your profile yet allows you to refrain from posting anything that reveals information of a personal nature such as gender, race or even age.
So you can rest easy knowing that the employer did not pass you up because of ageism, racism or sexism. There are also apps that allow you to be very specific in the criteria of the companies you wish to work for. If you are looking to get in on the ground floor of a revolutionary new start up then there is an app for that as well. “Angelist” was originally intended to pair investors with start-ups who were seeking funds to expand their companies or expand on their potentially lucrative ideas but has since evolved into a recruiting agency for those seeking to gain employment in a start-up and invest time and effort rather than actual funds in the hopes that they will hit the big time. Times have definitely changed, and the way we seek employment has changed right along with it.
