Though LinkedIn is the social media platform of choice at business schools, career counselors also believe that Twitter is a tool that students will find useful. Students should follow companies they're interested in on Twitter to learn about new developments and job openings, says Inger Maher, associate director of career development at the University of California—Davis Graduate School of Management.
"Any company that's worth its salt is going to be promoting itself on Twitter," says Maher. She advises students to gather information about a company from its Twitter feed and then leverage those bits of news in their interviews.
Though it is not as popular with recruiters as LinkedIn, Facebook is also a platform that can help students network with professionals. A study published in 2011 by the Education Advisory Board showed that 86.6 percent of human resource and recruiting specialists used LinkedIn, compared to 55.3 percent on Facebook, and 46.6 percent on Twitter.
[Read about how Yammer may trump Facebook for some grad students.]
When using Facebook for career networking, students need to be cautious about what they post on their pages, says Jeannine Berge, career coach at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln College of Business Administration. Yet regardless of which platform they choose, the strategy does not change, Berge adds.
"It's still the same thing, with people finding someone that they know and connecting in that way," Berge says. "If they start off with the personal connections, sometimes it's not as intimidating as trying to connect with someone they may not know."
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اسلام احمد 1:23AM May 04, 2012
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