Fbing with friends is no doubt fun but people are going a step further now. They are using the site as a platform for finding jobs. Apart from the personal profile, fresh graduates are signing up professional pages on fb these days. Opening an exclusive page on your work experience is like having an online portfolio. More youngsters are apparently finding facebook more convenient than job-seeking sites.
Vishal, a young collegian got his internship opportunity through facebooking. “I wanted to do graphic design and I started a page where I uploaded all my works. I received comments and likes and that led to queries from design companies,” he says. Currently freelancing for design firms, he says, “Fb is a perfect platform to upload your works. There is no restriction on the MBs and GBs of file that you upload. One need not even email the portfolio. Simply sending the link to the page helps.”
Says Ajeet, a fashion designer and stylist, “Sending portfolios via email is often difficult if the file size is big. Earlier, we used to share it in Picasa albums, but fb is more comfortable as you can customize and design the page layout the way you want. LinkedIn is another site that is more helpful in building career networks. But it is technically complicated for freshers to handle.”
Many companies these days also ask for the fb page link while hiring new employees these days. “Sending your profile page link or blog link along with your resume fetches you better prospects of getting the job,” says Rahul, who hires young and fresh people for his self-started company. “One can come to know the personality and interests of a person through his/her profile on fb. Owning an online portfolio page with your works displayed is an added advantage.”
But some people complain of their professional works being stolen and copied on the site. “You should restrict the privacy settings for your page and the access should be allowed only for friends on your network. Else, anyone would post anonymous comments and your page will end up looking messy,” says Namrata Kedar, a logo-designer based in Mumbai, who runs a page called ‘season-check’. “But a facebook page is more like a reflection of yourself. What you share and like in your timeline matters. I am very careful in what I post.”
Online portfolio also comes in handy for people who choose to work from home. “Almost all companies have their brand pages on fb so it makes sense to showcase yourself and your works on the same site. It increases visibility. The chances of being called by companies also multiplies,” says Varun, who conducts surveys for retail firms. “For a fresh starter, fb portfolios are perfect. You can make good money sitting in front of the monitor.
“Mostly people from creative fields like photography, design, graphics and art, sign up online portfolios on fb. But abroad, your twitter account or fb profile is an indicator of your social interaction and movement with others. Especially networking jobs demand your online profile upkeep,” says Lavan, Network Manager at a private firm in Bangalore. “As every brand is vying for it’s identity on social networking sites, there are job positions created exclusively for online brand building and the right candidate is the one who is tech savvy and a networking-freak.”
So, if you are one of those on a job hunt, just create a personalised page on fb, put up your work samples and your online portfolio is ready. And then simply wait for an employer to ping you!
