Two out of 10 college students will graduate this May and be underemployed, making less than $20,000 a year. 1.7 million of them will work retail. Even more will work at a job that they don’t like.
Social media expert Joshua Waldman thinks online professional networking can change these statistics. He spoke to a group of more than 120 Hillsdale College students on Monday night about how to use social media to get meaningful jobs and internships. The Career Services department hosted the event.
“He did things right, and he gets the benefit of coming here, seeing the place, making some money along the way, and sharing some of his wisdom,” executive director of Career Services Michael Murray said during his introduction of Waldman.
The Portland-based entrepreneur and author of “Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies” sprinkled his hour-long message with a humorous anecdotes from his past: Teaching kindergarten in Japan, meeting the Dalai Lama, and modeling for a whiskey advertisement in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“I realized I was letting life happen to me instead of making life happen for me,” Waldman said. “You can find a career you enjoy that brings something to the world. If you’re going to spend so much of your life working, doesn’t it make sense to do something meaningful?”
Today, Waldman works full-time training job seekers and employee recruiters how to use social media effectively.
“There are three questions that every manager needs to know in order to hire you,” he said. “Can you be trained? Do I like you? Are you motivated? Everything you do should answer these three questions.”
During his presentation, Waldman pointed out that 95 percent of companies use LinkedIn to find future employees. Coca-Cola has cut its search firm costs by more than 50 percent in the past four years. Yet less than half of college students use social media to advance their careers.
“Social media is the way students are communicating in the modern era,” freshman Razi Lane said. “It can help us connect with other students around the country and job opportunities in the future.”
Waldman suggested that students consider revamping their online LinkedIn profile by starting with a well-written summary that answers four questions: “Who are you? What do you do? Why are you the best? What do you want?”
He also recommended that students consider enhancing their online image by having a professional headshot as a LinkedIn profile picture, adjusting the privacy settings for photos on Facebook, and being active and insightful on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
“What we do online matters and sometimes we forget that,” Waldman said. “A LinkedIn conversation could lead to an email, a phone call, a cup of coffee…follow up and take this offline.”
Career Services staff passed out several free copies of Waldman’s book at the event to audience participants. The speaker stayed after the event to answer questions from the audience.
“I’ve been to a few of these presentations before and I thought [Walden] was very professional. I really enjoyed listening to him,” freshman Nathan Lehman said. “This is my livelihood that I’m talk about it. It’s good to have a reminder of what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s emboldened me.”