Networking just got easier with sites like LinkedIn and Way Up.
The time of graduation excitement and job search anxieties has arrived once again. Students are on the hunt for the perfect job. Employers are on the hunt for the perfect student. The rush to show how complex, driven, and enthusiastic we are bleeds from our fingers as we condense our lives into one short page of one-liners. We do this; our parents did it, and our parents’ parents did it. The only difference is we have an easier time doing it.
Sites like Linkedin and Way Up provide a platform that stages us like stars. Not only can users upload their one-liner resumes, but they can build a profile that encompasses a person who lives chapters, not pages. The right page of our life can be found with a short click, one word, or one connection. Networking through these sites has given employers their own personal search engine. Locations and keywords have never been so important. No longer shall we scour the newspaper postings like our ink-stain fingered grandparents or chase suited bosses down sidewalks to catch a word before close. Now we can let the bosses find us.
“It’s [LinkedIn] a great place to showcase your skills. In addition to posting a resume, you can also list your skills on your main profile, giving people access to see your accomplishments. You can add micro-credentials right to your LinkedIn Account. I just earned one from Wiley Educational Partners that I can add to show that I’ve completed their Teaching Online course,” Joyce Camp, the director of the Instructional Technology Center at Winthrop, said. Small accomplishments that may have been originally left out of a resume can be recognized on sites like Linkedin and
Way Up, all complexities finally acknowledged.
Although the new generation has this luxury [networking sites], knowing people is still a strong supplement to finding a workplace.
Scot Rademaker, a professor in the Winthrop College of Education, said, “I think LinkedIn is a great way to connect with other professionals and support their skill sets. Keeping track of where your professional friends are is very important for networking. This could also lead to potential job opportunities.” As our social lives have been undeniably transformed by sites like Instagram and Facebook, now our career lives can be too.
Having a networking site to display not only past accomplishments, but current progressions is a reason Linkedin has become a new way of self-advancement and showing pride in the evolution of our lives.
“I think LinkedIn is a great way to connect with individuals that are pursuing a career path or are already there. This network also gives individuals a professional atmosphere to learn about,” Jennell Jones, a former Winthrop student and current bail bondsman at Jones, Herbert and Associates Bail Bonding LLC, said. Although users may begin sites like these as potential employees, they may, however, become the employer instead.
A similar site to LinkedIn, Way Up drew the attention of Callie Steadman, a teacher in Greenville, South Carolina when she was applying for jobs.
“I managed to connect with two different schools, get an interview with one, and start my life just like that. Plus, I also found a quick babysitting job on there for the summer. I’ll never go back to any other job searching site,” Steadman said. As our technological world advances, so do our chances for finding exactly what we want. Our search just got so much easier, and so did our future employers’.
