5 Ways to Job Hunt Using Facebook

Would you use Facebook to job hunt? According to the 2012 Social Job Seeker Survey by recruiting and job site Jobvite, Facebook is emerging as a leading social network for job hunting.

But job seekers aren’t the only ones turning to social media, recruiters are, too. According to the survey, 86 percent of recruiters say they seek out potential candidates’ social media profiles.

It’s no wonder: Facebook’s new Graph Search, which it announced in January and is gradually rolling out to all users, makes it easier for recruiters to find talent. A quick search of “People interested in Java who live in San Francisco” returns more than 1,000 results.

If you’re looking for a new job or want to expand your professional network, Facebook is a promising place to start. Here’s a look at five Facebook applications that tap into your social network to find you new career opportunities.

1. BranchOut

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BranchOut, a Facebook application that launched in 2010 and has more than 30 million members, uses your Facebook network to connect on a professional level and take advantage of job opportunities.

Similar to Facebook’s Timeline, BranchOut features a “Professional Timeline” that use photos, news and updates to create “living narratives of who we are at work,” it says. “BranchOut allows people to bring their careers to life by showcasing the professional moments that define them.”

In addition to connecting professionally with friends, BranchOut lets you upload a copy of your resume, find people to follow, discover content others have shared, highlight your skills, and send and receive messages from others. BranchOut also has a mobile app that you can download from the Facebook App Center.

2. BeKnown

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The BeKnown Facebook app taps into Monster.com’s job database to give you insight into how you’re connected to companies with open job positions through your Facebook friends.

BeKnown fills out your professional profile with the basic information from Facebook to get you started. You can add additional achievements, claim a customized BeKnown URL and request endorsements from colleagues and classmates to highlight your professional accomplishments. You can also earn badges that are featured on your profile by actions such as completing your profile and connecting with new people.

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In addition to its jobs boards, you can search for people you may know and want to connect with professionally (your BeKnown activity isn’t broadcast on Facebook) and send and receive messages. To help you expand your BeKnown network, the app also surfaces past and current colleagues you may know based on where they work or went to school.

Unlike the BranchOut, BeKnown loads within Facebook so you’re not taken to an external site.

3. Identified

Identified is a social recruiting Facebook app that uses professional data collected from Facebook to produce an “Identified score”—a numerical value from 1 to 100 assigned to you, your current employer and your college. This number can also be associated with characteristics such as the quality of your workplace’s environment, for example.

The more information you add to your educational background, work history and professional network, the more your Identified score increases. Identified says this score helps professionals understand how in demand their professional background is to employers.

4. Jobvite

Jobvite’s Facebook app lets users find, refer and match jobs to friends, connect and apply to jobs from within Facebook and view their status in the hiring process at anytime. This creates “a positive, transparent relationship for companies and candidates,” the company says.

You can search for jobs based on keyword and location. The results will list the company name, the position, the date the job was posted and who in your network is connected to the company.

Jobvite also matches you to jobs it thinks you’re qualified for based on the work history you have listed on your Facebook profile. All of your Jobvite actions are private, too: Neither your employer or Facebook friends will see any activity from the app unless you OK it.

5. Facebook’s Social Jobs Partnership

In November, Facebook announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies to produce a new Facebook app to let you find and share employment opportunities.

The app lets you narrow down the type of job you’re looking for by keyword, category, subcategory and location. Clicking on the job titles gives you a quick rundown of the job specifics, such as the location and team, and a button to click that will send you to the recruiter’s website for more details.

Within each search result is a Like button that will display how many people have liked that job (and where you can like the position as well). It also includes a Send button that lets you share the job listing with a Facebook friend or send it to someone’s email address.

Would you use Facebook to job hunt? Cast your vote in our poll below.

Kristin Burnham covers consumer technology, social networking and social business for CIO.com. Follow Kristin on Twitter @kmburnham. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Kristin at kburnham@cio.com