How to Find an Internship or Summer Job Using Social Media Tools

By Kristin Dziadul, Guest Writer

It's that time of year to begin thinking about applying for a summer internship to jump start your career early and build out your resume. There are so many tools out there that you can use to search for internships, including networking, idealist.org, and your schools' guidance departments. However, have you considered using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to begin networking and searching for opportunities?

Social media provides a new and fun way to search for internships and make connections in those prospective companies. Think about this: how many times a day do you use a search engine such as Google to look up something? You may need to Google search for the best deal on a school backpack, and at the same time employers are searching on social media sites for their next rockstar intern.

The next question you may ask is why employers are using social media to find interns instead of using their job boards and other search sites like indeed.com. While they still are using those sites, they are now turning to social media to find and interact with teens who are beginning to develop their personal brand online. It is more important than ever for teens to have a healthy presence online by developing a professional Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and even blog site to demonstrate their working portfolio of skills for all to see.

You probably have noticed that almost every company now has a web presence, even llama farm fence makers (yes, that's right!). Because almost every company is on the web, you should be too! Instead of depending solely on your finely tuned resume and the interview, why not physically and virtually demonstrate your skills by working on the Internet? You could start writing a blog to promote your ideas, and employers may pick up your blog and be highly intrigued by your writing style and ideas and then contact you. You could also become a social butterfly on Facebook and Twitter by interacting with professionals in your field of interest, and that will be noticed by companies that need a social outreach intern, such as for customer service, social media, bloggers, etc. If you can go the extra mile to show that you know how to interact with people and share your ideas online just like real brands are doing, you have a much greater chance of getting noticed and scoring the interview, and hopefully the internship!

Today is truly an exciting time for both middle and high school students because of the vast opportunities that social media can provide to them. This is a whole new and innovative way to network and job search. Social media sites even have several resources to search for jobs. Twitter, for example, supports job searches. You can visit twitjobsearch.com, twitter.com/jobs, twitterjobs.org and even follow companies Twitter feeds, such as @internweb, @entryleveljob, @internqueen, @comerecommended, @findinternships and many more (Just Google "Internship Twitter list”).

If you consider using LinkedIn, keep in mind that they have an EXCELLENT job board. Joining LinkedIn provides you with a very interactive resume since you can list your education, any past jobs or internships, and even get recommended for past jobs or school work! In addition, you can post school projects you completed, such as outstanding slide presentations or papers for potential employers to view. Then when you go to apply for a job through the job board, employers can see your resume, recommendations, connections and school work right there! This serves as a very comprehensive and impressive resume for yourself!

Another way to build out your personal brand using social media would be to create a video resume for yourself on YouTube. All you need is either the camera on your computer or a video camera, a finely tuned two minute or less speech to orally demonstrate your skills and past experiences, and you are good to go! Videos are highly searchable online today, so if you put your video resume out there, it is likely that many people will see it. This also shows that you are a great communicator on the web and are not afraid to get in front of the camera, something even mid and senior level executives may be hesitant to do! You can also use your video resume as a supplement to your regular resume if a potential employer asks for more information from you.

Never discount using a social media site for your internship search today. So many people are on social media, that you are almost guaranteed to be seen by the right people if you develop a consistent and outstanding representation of yourself and make the right connections.

Have fun and good luck.

-Kristin Dziadul, 21, is a recent graduate of Western New England College with a Marketing Communications/Advertising major. She is the 2009 New England Direct Marketing Association scholarship recipient, and has a strong passion for marketing and social media! She blogs at http://kdmedianow.com. Follow her on Twitter @KristinEDziadul.