Social Media and Networking In the Modern Job Market: What Say You?

[Jacob]

I've checked.  Not much there at all.  Except for the chest puffers.

Then you can safely ignore it too.

The chest puffers get on linked in first. Eventually regular people follow, and then the recruiters descend.

[Ed Anger]

People who network a lot are douches. Coincidence? Maybe.

[Josquius]

My facebook is pretty hard to find, too much so even, not sure why, think I tinkered somewhere back down the line.
When it comes to job searching after I finish this job I think I'm probally going to change my surname on facebook to make me even harder to find.

One potential problem though is that despite my name being really uncommon there are a few other guys with the same name...one of whom seems to be a drunken rah moron who goes to the uni where I did my bachellor. Recruiters could potentially believe I'm this idiot with the half naked drunken profile picture....

[Maladict]

I use Facebook privately and I don't accept friend requests from colleagues.
My employer 'discovered' social media a few months ago  and pressured everyone to get a Linkedin account.
So far, I haven't seen much use for it, so I may quietly take it out back and shoot it one of these days.
I do keep a close eye on privacy settings, there's no-one else with my name in the world, so it's much easier to connect the dots.

[Ideologue]

OK, as part of my dealing-with-my-future-severance situation, I've been jumping back into the job market full-bore and buck naked for the first time with no real hard leads since, well, really 2003.

And while we're all familiar with the evolution of social media in recent years I have to say, I'm am rather stunned at the sheer magnitude of how much social media's been integrated into the job market.

Personally, believe in maintaining a low profile online with that sort of thing;  not out of any sort of Luddism, or my brilliant on-line persona  but because I see that sort of thing as an unnecessary risk, with more minuses than pluses.  But I get the feeling it's putting me at a disadvantage.

I have no Facebook, no LinkedIn, none of that kind of stuff.  Do you?  And if so, to what extent?

I don't.  I feel like I should, but it seems troublesome.

[DontSayBanana]

My facebook is pretty hard to find, too much so even, not sure why, think I tinkered somewhere back down the line.
When it comes to job searching after I finish this job I think I'm probally going to change my surname on facebook to make me even harder to find.

One potential problem though is that despite my name being really uncommon there are a few other guys with the same name...one of whom seems to be a drunken rah moron who goes to the uni where I did my bachellor. Recruiters could potentially believe I'm this idiot with the half naked drunken profile picture....

I treasure my common-name-induced anonymity.  You try searching for my name, you'll come up with everything from christian musicians to MLB pitchers.  If we don't actually have mutual friends, it takes some major Net Fu to find me.