More and more people are using professional social networking websites to upgrade their job profiles and climb the ladder of success.
Nineteen-year old Chandani Nasir, a second-year science student and winner of iFreshface contest on social networking site www.Ibibo.com, has taken on the fashion world practically sitting at home. She had logged on to ibibo.com to check out her friend’s profile but ended up uploading her pictures on the website as a part of an ongoing ‘Model Hunt’ contest. Nasir went on to win the contest and bagged a free portfolio shot by one of leading fashion photographers, Daboo Ratnani. The student-cum-model also got picked by Elite Model Management, which now handles all her modelling contracts. As Nasir starts her new profession, she recounts her aha moment and how it made her a believer in professional networking and the importance of building profile pages on social sites. “Had I not logged on to the social networking portal, my student to model transition would have cost me Rs 2-3 lakh,” she smiles.
Welcome to the world of professional social networking, where graduates log on to find summer internships, out-of-work executives fish for prospective employers, and young entrepreneurs claim to bag business deals over casual ‘notes’.
Admittedly, professional social networking phenomenon is still in its infancy at least when compared to job portals like Naukri.com. The site has over 2 lakh listed jobs at any point of time and serves over 34,000 corporate clients. No wonder , Yogesh Bansal, founder & CEO , ApnaCircle is focused on drawing a critical mass to his site, which at present has just about half a million subscribers. He also admits that when ApnaCircle was launched, majority of the users wanted to use it as just another social networking portal, although he adds, “Users are beginning to realise what professional networking is and now about 70 per cent of our users use the site for professional reasons.”
Users like Ashutosh Sinha, a marketing professional , swear by career networking portals like LinkedIn and Apnacircle. Sinha, who had posted his resume on www.ApnaCircle.com, landed himself a job within 28 days of registering. He is now working with ApnaCircle as head (Marketing) and business development.
Sinha explains the nascent career networking phenomenon, “When you put your resume on one of the job sites, the chances of your profile & resume getting lost among the thousands is high.” Despite posting his resume on job sites like Naukri, Monster among others and even paying nominal fees to boost chances of being recommended by the job portals, Sinha had to cool his heels for months. “On a networking site like ApnaCircle, I had an offer letter within 28 days of registration,” he claims. Although it is a bit too early to do away with the traditional job sites, Sinha does make a point.
Ashish Kashyap, CEO of Ibibo agrees that not everyone has a success story to share on his site. “The biggest gratification for these youngsters is recognition. For example, users know how many visitors saw their videos or pictures,” he says adding that there are users whose content has had no viewers at all. “But we provide tools that help them in getting visibility,” he quickly adds.
Another reason that has worked for professional social networking sites is the referral system. A handy referral posted on an individual’s profile page makes it easier for potential employers to come to a decision. And that’s what worked for Sinha. His online resume was recommended to the ApnaCircle executive by a common contact . Bansal now has 5 people hired through profiles posted on his site instead of scanning resumes from a job portal. “India is a country where good references can get you jobs and this sentiment works well for professional networking sites,” he reasons.
Two of the most popular networking sites on the internet, Facebook and LinkedIn, have many overlapping functions but invite different levels of contact. While Facebook allows users to post videos from Saturday’s party and invite friends to events, LinkedIn targets older, professional users interested in staying in touch and networking. In fact, LinkedIn claims to sign one member every second and about half of its members come from outside of the US. The site has over 41 million members in over 200 countries.
Others like Ibibo, which focuses majorly on the media & entertainment industry, is mounting the popularity charts among the youth. It began as social networking site but Ibibo has now morphed into a professional network for finding alternative jobs and boasts of 4 million registered users, attracts 2.75 million unique visitors per month. Kashyap is confident that there are enough sites for professional jobs but none for alternative professions. “We have adequate examples to prove that people have switched professions as they find a platform on Ibibo to showcase their talent.” Kashyap lists the example of an Ibibo user, who was a doctor by profession but switched tracks to become a model. “Similarly, we also have users like a BPO executive who is now a game developer and another executive who quit his job to start a dance school,” he provides.
As economic woes deepen and people compete for fewer jobs, personal introductions to potential employers would only get more important. So, get ready for a well-connected recession.
