Are You Good Enough?

Happy Holiday Weekend! Between work the last three days and being glued to my bed when I'm home, this is the first opportunity I have had to post! I hope it has been an awesome holiday for everyone.
Okay now, moving on...

After our conversation in class leading us to Google, I happened to come across an article on LinkedIn called "Are you Good Enough for Google." I found this article interesting and wanted to share and use it for my blog post. If you have the time, I invite you to read it, as I did find it intriguing and thought "hey what would my classmates think about this article?" I thought it had a lot of interesting points. The main section that stood out to me is subtitled "Big Data," where he addresses bots scanning our resumes for information and the probability of getting hired by Google. He then discusses ways that we can beat the odds - essentially I don't think he is speaking just of Google, but I imagine any big name company that we may want to work at. Here is what he had to say about the use of social media:

You’ve probably heard of web analytics, but what about people analytics? Today, human capital is measured by resume robots and social media scores. This is not to say we’ve taken the ‘human’ out of human resources, but the nature of recruitment has changed.

Everything is tracked, including social media activity and the degree to which you’re already ‘connected’ to the company. Did you respond to an email? Were you late for an interview? Algorithms already predict World Series championships (Go Giants!) and fluctuations in the stock market. Why not forecast the success of one candidate over another?

Success is relative so it can be measured by almost anything, including:

• Internet Presence - Articles, blogs and social media mentions, particularly on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+
• Past Performance - Employment background, work history, native talent and earned credentials from the applications and resumes you submit
• Personality Tests - Skill sets and behaviors can be modeled from your answers to scenario based surveys and tests

Once the data is collected, ATS goes to work. Like Google’s super secret search algorithm, no one knows how data sets are organized and analyzed, but you can bet it differs by employer and role.

My first big girl job actually came from LinkedIn, and I also received recruitment emails from companies such as Victoria Secrets, Aeropostale, and DSW, just to name a few. However, I do want my career to go into a different direction (away from retail). To read through the rest of the article it is here.

Here are my questions for you:
Do you think social media plays a huge part in the hiring process?
How do you feel about the points the author is making in this section of his post?
What sites do you focus on for social media and networking?
Do you see all social media as an avenue for a networking possibility/ career opportunity?
How important do you think it is to have a social media presence?
What are your thoughts on the article.... do you feel it is accurate?