Social networking for your career

I never really joined the MySpace craze when it started (I think I have a site there somewhere) because I didn't see a need for it unless I was 15 years old (which I am not). That kind of social networking just didn't strike a cord with me. However, I immediately saw the uses behind sites like LinkedIn and job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com (though those have been almost completely taken over by recruiters). Those kind of sites would obviously help me grow professionally by letting possible employers and others know who I was and what I was doing in my field. And even blogging is a social network of a sort. I tell a lot of people what I think about security, and it has done a lot to get my name out in the industry.

So basically, I have tried to limit my involvement in social networks to something that will further my career. I just didn't see the need to maintain such close contact with people on the intimate level of a MySpace or something like that. But that changed a bit for me recently. What happened? Well, I became a Twit. If you don't know what that is, you can go over to Twitter and read their FAQ, but essentially it is a social networking site that can be used to keep in close contact with all kinds of people. And that is really the main reason I use it. I want to maintain convenient contact with a lot of people in the security industry that I don't normally get to talk to very often. But in actuality, I had almost no clue as to what Twitter was when I signed up. I just knew that a lot of security people (called security twits) were on it, and they were all planning on using it a lot when they were at the RSA Conference. So I decided to get connected.

And now? Well, it takes entirely WAY too much of my time. If I am not posting on it, I am reading someone's latest post. And some people post CONSTANTLY by phone or a Twitter client of some sort. But I can see its uses now because it does help me maintain contact with my friends. And now that I am on Twitter and am thinking about some of these other sites, I have started to realize that professional social networking is not the only way to kick your work life into gear.

Here is a key point. People hire people. People like to KNOW you before they hire you. I am a great example of this. In my IT career of 14 years and eight different jobs, I have only been hired once by using a job site. Every other time was through someone I knew, and that someone recommended me or hired me directly. So keeping in touch and making an impression is one of the best ways (if not THE best way) to further your career. And though sites like LinkedIn are still great, they do not really accomplish the goal of letting people get to know who you really are. Social networking sites like Twitter and others achieve that goal quite nicely.

Now, as fair warning, you might not want people to get to know you TOO well. Some sites (like Twitter) center around letting people know what you are doing and where you are located at any given second. The security implications of that are somewhat obvious, though the risk of someone using the info to attack you is probably low (unless you have a stalker, I guess). And some people don't consider the efficiency problems caused by social networking. So caution should be taken when considering these sites.

But all-in-all, these sites are really just ways of letting people get to know the real you. People can't tell if you will fit into their team with a look at your resume' and a few interviews. A social networking site can. Don't be afraid to join up, and don't think they are worthless for your career.