Star Search

In June I will have the proud honor (or the headache) of a college graduation and a soon-to-be repatriated daughter who will return home after four years and change and begin her search for a job.

Hopefully, her career pursuits will have begun well before that, but if she’s adhered faithfully to one mantra during her stay at the university, it’s “never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” This is where the above-mentioned headache component comes in.

But looking past the encroaching tuition loans which would surely rival the GDP of some third-world countries, and the often intimidating process of interviewing, I’m hoping that her fairly impressive social media skills will fast-track her toward call-backs. Here’s where I’m confident that the untold thousands of texts and Facebook posts (in lieu of actual dinnertime conversation) will begin to pay dividends.

I instructed her to update her Facebook and LinkedIn profiles with any and all part-time positions, internships and extracurricular activities. I took the time to explain to her that our generation actually had to fill this information out long-hand any number of times, a vignette that made about as deep an impression as if I held out an 8-track tape, or an IBM Selectric.

Recently, however, I read about a paid LinkedIn feature called InMail, which allows users to send emails directly to any one of the service’s 250 million-plus members, some of whom I assured her would be the gatekeepers of the companies she was interviewing with. Theoretically, with this feature, you could send a resume directly to the inbox of America’s top CEOs – although I cautioned that folks like Larry Ellison, Howard Shultz or Bill Gates probably get at least one or two hopefuls in their inboxes each day.

But in the current vise-like job market where the competition even for entry-level posts could be mildly described as cut-throat, Millennials with exceptional social and digital media skills may make the difference between hearing “you’re hired” and “we’ve decided to go with another candidate.”

Now, if only there was a social media app that can help me prepare for her moving back in – other than several generous glasses of merlot.