Comments on: Advice on “facebook and other sites” while job seeking

By: Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 3) | Social Media Law Student

Tue, 12 May 2009 04:30:55 +0000

[...] had no idea when I started whining about bad advice involving Facebook horror stories that a few months later I would be offered a spot at a table with Harvard’s Berkman Center [...]

By: Laura Bergus

Laura Bergus — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:32:32 +0000

counselorT: You make a good point, which is why we are working to create a best practices plan that will address how employers use social media as well. I didn’t realize until very recently how much influence schools have over how employers (especially large firms) conduct their recruiting, particularly for on-campus interviews. If career counselors, who employers trust to provide them with good candidates, are telling employers where and how to evaluate candidates online, it will help shift things in a direction that will save employers time and money (something that all employers value, not just those that are in “my generation”). The incidents of employers screening out “bad” applicants based on the applicants’ Facebook profiles happen because employers don’t know where else to look and students aren’t being counseled on creating a positive and professional online presence.

There will be some employers, regardless of age, who will continue to prefer receiving paper résumés and paying for student flybacks. But there is no good reason not to provide additional means for students and employers to connect, or at the very least encourage those who want to use social media for these purposes to think about what they are doing and how they should do it.

By: counselorT

counselorT — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:09:19 +0000

Um . . . you all seem to be missing the point. This has nothing to do with career offices being ‘behind the times’ – it has only to do with *legal employers* not being ready to value social networking on the internet. This is the proverbial shooting the messanger! Your career offices are simply passing on information and warnings from employers – not promoting the attitude or approach. Think about it – career counselors are FOR anything that will help students/alumni get jobs! Your rants should be directed at employers who are judging the content and making hiring decisions based on what they see online about candidates. You and the people who hire are 3 to 4 generations apart – and, perhaps unfortunately, it is the older generation running things now. So it is the applicant for a job that has to adjust to what the employer wants and expects, and I suggest that you career offices are just trying to let you know what that is. As employers understanding and approach to online content changes, you’ll be getting different messages from career offices about the topic.

By: Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 2) | Social Media Law Student

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:44:29 +0000

[...] only been a month since I first emailed my career services counselor with a link to my ticked-off post about law schools ignoring the potential value of social media. We’re now working together to get my law school in line in providing modern, useful social [...]

By: Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 1) | Social Media Law Student

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:06:15 +0000

[...] beneficial way to meet people and learn about the field. I got pretty upset with my school, and blogged about it (against their advice, of course). As with many rants, I ended up feeling guilty for whining but [...]

By: Snot isn’t professional? Rethinking Social Media… « No 634

Snot isn’t professional? Rethinking Social Media… « No 634 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:57:24 +0000

[...] or blog. If anything, my twitter and blog put a personality with my resume. 1 On a related note, Laura Bergus has an interesting post on social media in law [...]

By: Jansen

Jansen — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:40:21 +0000

Amusing. I got my job through twitter, so I think your career services office is behind.

Although, some things do need to be policed (you would be surprised how many students have drug references on fb).

By: Nature of competition | Laura Bergus

Nature of competition | Laura Bergus — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:01:38 +0000

[...] Laura Bergus at 4:01 pm February 12, 2009 After whaling on my career placement office in my last post, I realized that whining does nothing to fix the problem of law students being advised to limit [...]

By: Josh Camson

Josh Camson — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:38:39 +0000

Well said. When I discussed Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn over at http://socialmedialawstudent.com I was using one or two pieces of anecdotal evidence to show that CSO advisors were saying these things. It saddens me to hear that even more career offices are giving this kind of flawed advice. Good response and thoughts though.

By: Lisa Henry

Lisa Henry — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:37:10 +0000

Greetings! I personally think that the legal system is turning away from the opportunity social networking offers from a business point of view. It seems a forward thinking profession would progress with technology. Laws are the root of our country, however it is still a business and you cannot grow a business without marketing and the future is social networking. In the next decade it will be difficult to find a printed newspaper or even a physical phone or yellow page book. All attorneys who do not develop and change their attitude about marketing are those that are not entrepreneurs or rainmakers. Rainmakers social network and all others work for other people.

“He who yells the loudest about the ethics of marketing are the ones who have no clients” A quote by me, Lisa Henry

Thank you for the platform. Take care!