On my last day as a CareerCloud intern, I am reflecting on my work over the past year.  It has been a great learning experience, and I'm happy to be able to look back and be proud of what I've done--like grow our Twitter and Facebook following, write articles for popular blogs, write a job report, and even attend a national conference! 

Below I've listed some of the things that I've learned during my time as a CareerCloud Intern.  

How to be a Super Intern:

Go above and beyond your duties.  If you are the intern who is doing the work that no one wants to do, then it's because you're not respecting your own position.  Don't sell yourself short!  Instead, take responsibility for the jobs you are given, and make them your own.  Be creative, work hard, and do more than you are asked--that's how your employer will know that you're not "just an intern".  Being too good at what you do is what will make people notice that you deserve to be one step higher than where you are.

Always look for ways to improve.  Don't just sit around waiting for someone to tell you what to do.  Find something to do, do it, and make that a habit.  By wanting to be better and working to make yourself better, you are already better.

Be open minded.  Sometimes when we find our niche and a system that works for us, we like to stick to it.  There's nothing wrong with that, but there are times where change is necessary.  Learn how to recognize when that time has come: always keep your mind open to any possibility.

Pay extra attention.  As an intern, you should be the hardest worker on your team.  After all, you are the one who needs to leave the best impression.  Take notes, listen to what people are saying to you, remember it, and save it as resource--it might be important later on. 

Organize your work.  Prioritize your projects and make to-do lists for your to-do lists.  Know what needs to get done, when it needs to get done, and how it needs to get done.

Make suggestions.  Show your employer that you have a mind of your own, but also that you can collaborate and compromise others.  Think for yourself and use your sense of creativity and individuality to share a new perspective.  Making suggestions will highlight your desire and ability to help.

Ask questions.  Ask good questions.  Ask questions whose answers are not obvious.  Ask questions that they've never heard before.  Ask questions with a purpose.  Ask questions because you are interested.  Ask questions because they lead to more questions, and more questions lead to more answers.

Be curious.  Do your fair share of research on new projects or subjects you will be working with, especially if they are unfamiliar to you.  Be interested in it, and show that you are interested.  

Reflect on and analyze your work.  Never assume that you are doing the best that you can because there is always a way to improve.  Take the time to look at what you're doing and ask yourself whether or not it's great.  If it's not, ask yourself how you could make it better.  Set goals often, and take the steps that you need to in order to achieve them.  

Take the job seriously.  Being an intern is one of the best stages of a professional career--at least in my opinion.  You're on the verge of beginning a life of employment--nothing major is at stake yet.  It is the time to make mistakes and learn from them, the time to meet professionals and find the ones you aspire to be like.  Having the title of an "intern" makes you important and shows that you are a hard worker.  Take that position seriously and recognize that you are needed.  No one can do you job better than you can!

If you don't know how to conduct a job search using various social media...then you need to learn #ASAP.  The social media job hunt is crucial in today's competitive market.  Jobseekers are at a great disadvantage if they are not utilizing platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Jobs WIth Friends, Tumblr, blogs, etc. etc....the tools and possibilities are endless.

How is social media so powerful?  With the infographics below we hope to highlight some of the influences that social media have on the job search, and how they came to be.

The History of Social Networking

The first e-mail was sent in 1971...and the two computers were sitting right next to each other.  

Friendster launches in 2002 and its user-base grows to 3 million in just three months.  

Myspace launches in 2003, Facebook launches in 2004, and Twitter in 2006.  

Today, Myspace has over 23.6 million users, Facebook with 1.11 billion, and Twitter with 500 million. 

Social media began as a way to connect people.  Soon enough, someone realized that it is not only a person-to-person connector, but a jobseeker-to-employer connector.  Today, 92% of employers will recruit using social networks.  Users can now have the best of both worlds; staying connected with their friends, and having professional accounts that help put them on recruiter radar.

Social Media Demographics

The majority of social media users are people with income levels between 25-75K.  

LinkedIn users are 50% male and 50% female while both Twitter and Facebook have 40% male and 60% female users. 

56% of LinkedIn users are between the ages of 35-54.

Professional profiles like LinkedIn and CareerCloud's Social Resume have jobseekers in mind.  They don't target young teens or retired seniors for a reason, which explains why most LinkedIn users are between 35-54 years old.  In addition to keeping people in touch, social media exists to help people connect with professionals and showcase their talents and skills.  

Twitter: Facts and Figures

Only 23% of males and 22% of females use Twitter for work-related reasons.  

71% of tweets created every day produce no reaction.  

72% of U.S. companies have a Twitter account, and only 10% of company tweets are about job opportunities

Of all of the jobseekers out there, it is surprising that only 45% are using Twitter for work-related reasons.  Innovative jobseekers who know how to use their social media are surely in this 45%.  Twitter is powerful in the job search because it allows users to interact directly with companies and brands, use the search engine to find open positions, market themselves as active jobseekers, and share helpful links, advice, articles, and blogs with their fellow Tweeters.  Companies are switching focuses from resumes to social profiles, and Twitter is what they will use to find out how your mind works.

LinkedIn Boot Camp

LinkedIn has over 135 million worldwide members.  

LinkedIn profiles generally rank in the top five Google search results for first and last names.

Websites like LinkedIn are particularly powerful in finding a job because it is a social networking website designed to connect professionals to professionals.  Active LinkedIn networking and Facebook friending will also lead jobseekers to the handy Jobs With Friends that will allow them to ask their connections for job referrals.  We keep our connections for a reason.

Road to Success

95% of businesses throughout the world use social media as a networking tool.  

More than 70% of new business partnerships have been as a result of social media.  

45% of companies check the applicant via social media after receiving their applications.

Successful job hunting requires that our social media profiles match who we say we are on our resumes, cover letters, and interviews.  Employers need to know that our social footprints and online profiles are appropriate, parallel, and representative of who we are as employees.  Social media can make or break your next opportunity.

"Go social, go mobile, get hired."

A social media presence--like all good things--takes time to build.  You don't just sign up for LinkedIn and have 500+ connections with an incomplete profile, and you certainly don't get that blue checkmark next to your Twitter handle by tweeting curse words and meaningless updates.

Your online profiles are what make your social media footprint, and the paths you follow on the interweb are make you an attractive (or unattractive) hire to recruiters and hiring managers.  Aside from acting as a window to your personality for potential employers, your online activity is what we like to call a "social resume".  So whether you realize it yet or not, what you are doing online has an affect on your future.

Photo Credit SmartRecruiters.com

Successful jobseekers are finding employment by dedicating themselves to social media.  Their secret is this: they really, truly, genuinely believed in the power of social media to help them land that job.  They didn't succeed by pretending to care; they did it by using social media purposefully and to their advantage.

Here are some tips to help you do the same:

As a social media user, learn how to:

Stay focused, but show your personality.  Show your followers (and potential future employers) that you have a variety of interests in addition to your job or career. If you're a finance major, use Tumblr and share finance-related articles/facts/infographics, but add a little personality by posting an image or an article you enjoyed about a movie you saw.  Be consistent, but varied--and make it personable!

Leverage your contacts.  Don't just create and share content, but get involved in the conversation, or make a new friend.  Use platforms like Jobs With Friends to help organize those who you are connected to--after all, they are the ones who could be referring you for your next job.

Be professional.  There's really no need to drop F-bombs on your Facebook status every day.  It gives you a bad image, a bad attitude, and a negative energy: not exactly making you the ideal person to work with in a professional environment.  Just keep in mind that potential employers are looking at what you post.

Before overwhelming yourself with all of the possibilities, you should also know that dedicating yourself to establishing social media profiles has its benefits too.

From using social media, learn how to:

Practice forming good habits.  Although many of us are already addicted to our preferred social networking sites, being active users makes it more likely for our profiles to be discovered.  For example, participating in LinkedIn discussions and regularly keeping in contact with your connections might just be how your next employer will find you.  

Communication/networking skills.  Maybe starting a blog and writing about topics you care about will lead to meeting fellow bloggers or jobseekers.  Blogging can also help you communicate more efficiently by learning what readers like or don't like, and how you can use that knowledge to better your writing/expressive skills.

Find the value in quality, vs. quantity.  People don't want to follow someone who tweets once every 35 seconds.  They also don't want to follow someone who tweets once every 3-5 years.  Find the happy middle between the two extremes, and stay there.  In the workplace, quality will also matter more: your boss wants to see a job done well rather than an abundance of jobs done poorly.

According to a study conducted by Reppler, 91% of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates.  And, according to The Young People's Consumer Confidence (YPCC) Index, 1 in 10 young people have been rejected for a job because of their social profile--inappropriate photos, discriminatory comments, curse words, etc.  

Be not afraid of social media--these facts are not meant to be discouraging in any way.  In fact, these numbers are meant to influence you, as a social media user, to take your tweets and statuses seriously.  According to Mashable, 65% of companies have successfully hired via social media.  See?  Doing something right online could just get you your next job.  

Jobseekers all over the world are getting increasingly creative in everything from building their personal brand to the way they conduct their job search, and with today's social media, anything is possible.  

Here are 9 success stories from people who took job search risks, created their own paths, and succeeded in using social media as a tool to get a job:

#1

Social Platform: LinkedIn Candidate: Nicolette Weinbaum Field: Marketing/Sales Her story: Nicolette is a Villanova University freshman who recently proved her peers and all who doubted her ability to get an internship position as a freshman simply by posting a LinkedIn ad--for herself!  The ad showed a picture, and the following 9 words: "Villanova Undergrad seeks summer internship. Driven, accomplished, dynamic, creative", as well as a link to a blog post outlining her skills and accomplishments.  Nicolette paid $200 for the ad, and she has never come close to regretting it.  The ad resulted in over 50 e-mails, a dozen interviews, a handful of new connections, and exactly what she wanted: a summer internship.

We interviewed Nicolette (listen here) and she told us about how surprised she was that something so simple went so far, and how effective an advertisement can be. 

Read more here.

#2

Social Platform: Twitter Candidate: Bilal Jaffery Field: Social/Digital Marketing His story:  Ever heard of applying for a job via a single tweet? Well, Enterasys hired and recruited Bilal Jaffery as their new director of social and digital marketing when he responded to Vala Afshar's tweet which read: "I am hiring a director of #marketing, focused on higher-ed; six figure salary, amazing team. Apply via Twitter. #jobs".  How can you convince a company to hire you in under 140 characters?

"I decided to participate and submit my intention to apply on Twitter with the #socialCV hashtag, highlighting one of my articles from SocialMediaToday on social strategy," says Bilal.  He has now been happily employed at Enterasys, all thanks to one tweet.

A few months ago, we interviewed Vala Afshar on CareerCloud radio (listen here) and he gave us his reasons behind deciding to go with a Twitter-job-application process.  "Mobile and social is not about technology," he said.  "It's about a lifestyle...and the very best talent who are hyperconnectd and social are going to look for companies that intersect their interest on social networks.  You go where the conversation is."

Read more here.

#3

Social Platform: Tumblr Candidate: Stacy Lambe Field: Content Editor His story: Imagine making a meme from a picture of Hillary Clinton because you thought it would be funny.  Imagine that turning into a blog.  Now imagine Mrs. Clinton inviting you for a visit to the State Department and contributing to your blog.  Then imagine traveling to NYC the next day to interview for editor at BuzzFeed.  Well, all of this is exactly what happened to Stacy Lambe just over a year ago after he and a friend saw a picture of Hillary Clinton online.

After the interview, BuzzFeed’s editor in chief Ben Smith called Lambe with an offer.  Lambe loves his job behind his computer, and now he works for a successful publication and gets paid to surf the web—his dream job.

Read more here. 

#4

Social Platform: Tumblr Candidate: Neetzan Zimmerman Field: Marketing and Blogging His story:  “The internet doesn’t go to sleep,” says Neetzan Zimmerman, blog master and creator of The Daily What.  For years, Neetzan posted between 30-35 blogs daily, all while working a marketing job.  Even when he finally quit to run the blog full-time and then some (7:30 am - 2 am), Neetzan still couldn't get enough.  He wanted more.  

After dedicating most of his day to the blog, he sold The Daily What and scored a job at Gawker doing exactly what he started doing for free.  "I'm ready to go full capacity and give them a 30-post day, even after everybody's gone home," he says about his new employer.  Surely a great example of a dedicated (and slightly obsessed) web surfer, Neetzan is proof that persistence is a key tool in today’s job search. 

Read more here and here.

#5

Social Platform: Blog Candidate: Kiley Stenberg Field: Marketing and Social Media Her story: What's unique about Kiley Stenberg's social media success story is that the job she got was in an industry that she wasn't even working in.  Kiley started a fashion blog simply to have as her very own "creative outlet".  With the blog's success eventually came an opportunity to work for a local men's boutique in Des Moines called Badower's, where they wanted her help in opening a store for women.

Kiley says to "always write for yourself first."  She started her blog as a personal project that she loved to do, and it led to a new full-time position.  Everything from creativity to opportunity, Kiley creates her own and encourages other jobseekers to do so as well.

Read more here.

#6

Social Platform: Vine Candidate: Dawn Siff Field: Management Her story: How do you convince an employer to hire you in a mere 6 seconds?  Well, ask Dawn Siff, who used the social media app Vine to make her own version of a video resume.  In the video she says, "Journalist, strategist, manager, deadline Jedi, idea machine Dawn Siff".  A little networking and that Vine video was all it took to convince the Economist Group that Dawn was the right candidate for the job.

Originally, Dawn filmed the video to challenge herself.  Fortunately, her unique idea resulted in a new job, and a great success story to come with it.

Read more here.

#7

Social Platform: Facebook Candidate: Mariam Schembari Field: Public Relations/Social Media Her story: Similar to Nicolette Weinbaum, who posted an ad on LinkedIn to get an internship, Marian Schembari posted her ad on Facebook, and she directed it to a specific firm, HarperCollins.  

The ad cost only $150 and opened the doors Marian needed in order to get job she wanted.  Networks are some of today's most vital job search tools, and through the connections she made from her ad, accepted an offer.  It's incredible to know, thanks to Marian's story, that there are people out there who are willing and able to help other people get their dream jobs.

Read more here.

#8

Social Platform: Facebook Candidate: Chris Putnam Field: Computer Science His story: In 2005, Chris Putnam created a Facebook virus as a prank with his friends that made Facebook pages look like Myspace pages.  He got a message from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz explaining that his bug was also deleting user contact information.  They messaged back and forth and became friendly, and when Chris mentioned he had an interview with a company in San Francisco, he was also offered an interview with Facebook.  

Initially, Chris thought he would be met by cops at the "interview" but it turns out that Facebook's intentions were real, and a few days later he was a Facebook employee.  Although not every story that starts this way ends this way, who knew a prank would result in a new job?

Read more here.

Social Platform: Pinterest Candidate: Enid Hwang Field: Social Media Her Story: Pinterest's current community manager was also their 367th user.  Enid Hwang developed an interest--nearly obsessive--in Pinterest when she first joined and explored the website.  In the beginning, Pinterest had no HR department, and Enid e-mailed Ben Silbermann, cofounder.  They met for coffee, and months later, Enid became Pinterest's 6th employee.  

Enid's story is encouraging because it reminds jobseekers simply to find something they love to do and be part of it.  With enough persistence and hard work, a job might just come of it.

Read more here.