An empirical study of searching for scholarships and jobs through using social networks’ features

Öz

Every day social networks introduce new features; these features can be used in order to achieve professional purposes. Some of these features which promote searching for scholarships and jobs are the ability to search inside the social networks and joining groups. A main objective of this study was to empirically investigate the way online users use their social networks for the purpose of searching for scholarships and jobs. The data were collected to explore users’ current usage. The study was conducted by focusing on Erasmus students at Vilnius University, Lithuania. A web questionnaire was shared in Erasmus active Facebook groups. The answer to the web questionnaire of (53) respondents was randomly received. The methodology used the quantitative approach, descriptive statistics using the program SPSS version 19. Findings indicated that although many online users have already joined groups and followed pages concerning scholarships and jobs in their social networks, their usage is very limited for professional purposes namely scholarship and job search. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Social Networks,Scholarship and Job Search,Current Usage,Features

Kaynakça

1. Abdu, M. (2015) Individual Purposes of Social Network Sites Use for Finding Jobs and Scholarships, Ege University – Izmir- Turkey (Unpublished master thesis).
2. Boyd, D. (2006). Friends, Friendsters, and Myspace Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites. First Monday, 11(12). Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1418/1336 Accessed: 4-1-2015.
3. Brad & Schepp, D. (2010). How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Other Social Networks. New York: McGraw-Hill.
4. Brandtzæg, P. B., & Heim, J. (2009). Why People Use Social Networking Sites. In Online Communities and Social Computing (pp. 143-152). Springer: Berlin Heidelberg.
5. Crompton, D., & Sautter, E. (2011). Find a Job through Social Networking: Use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and More to Advance Your Career (2nd ed.). USA: JIST Works.
6. Ellison, N. B. & Boyd, D. M. (2013). Sociality Through Social Network Sites. In William H. Dutton (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies, (pp.151-172). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Steinfield, C. & Vitak, J. (2010). With a Little Help From My Friends: How Social Network Sites Affect Social Capital Processes. In Papacharissi, Z. (Ed.) A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 124-145). U.K: Routledge.
8. Falkowski, T. (2009). Community Analysis in Dynamic Social Networks. Sierke. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.

9. Gen & Tanabe, K. (2009). How to Write a Winning Scholarship Essay. USA: SuperCollege, LLC.
10. Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks (The Facebook Case) Proceedings of WPES’05 (pp. 71–80). Alexandria, VA: ACM.
11. Johnson, T. J., Zhang, W., Bichard, S. L. & Seltzer, T. (2011) United We Stand? Online Social Network Sites and Civic Engagement. In Papacharissi, Z. (Ed.) In A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 185-207). U.K: Routledge.
12. Kelsey, T. (2010). Social networking spaces: From Facebook to Twitter and everything in between. Apress.
13. Kodjamanis, A., & Angelopoulos, S. (2013, May). Consumer perception and attitude towards advertising on social networking sites: the case of Facebook. In International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design, Famagusta, North Cyprus.
14. Kreuter, F., Presser, S., & Tourangeau, R. (2008). Social desirability bias in CATI, IVR, and Web surveys the effects of mode and question sensitivity. Public Opinion Quarterly, 72(5), 847-865.
15. NACE (2014) Student Use and Perceived Effectiveness of Social Networks, https://www.naceweb.org/s12102014/job-search-using-social networks.aspx?terms=job%20search Accessed: 10-01-2015.
16. Peacock, M. (2009). Drupal 6 Social Networking. U.K: Packt Publishing.
17. Perrin, A. (2015). Social Media Usage: 2005-2015. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/10/PI_2015-10-08_Social-Networking-Usage-2005-2015_FINAL.pdf / Accessed: 20.10.2015.
18. Reed, J. (2012). Get up to speed with online marketing: How to use websites, blogs, social networking and much more. U.S.A: Pearson Education.
19. Richter, A., & Koch, M. (2008, May). Functions of social networking services. In Proc. Intl. Conf. on the Design of Cooperative Systems (pp. 87-98). Springer.
20. Salpeter, M. (2011). Social Networking for Career Success: Using Online Tools to Create a Personal Brand. New York: Learning Express.
21. Sharma, M. (2008). Elgg Social Networking. U.K: Packt Publishing.
22. Suki, N. M., Ramayah, T., Ming, M. K. P., & Suki, N. M. (2011). Factors enhancing employed job seekers intentions to use social networking sites as a job search tool. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI), 7(2), 38-54.
23. Thilagam, P. S. (2010). Applications of Social Network Analysis. In B. Furht (Ed.), Handbook of Social Network Technologies and Applications (pp. 637-650). New York: Springer.
24. Veer, E. (2010). Facebook The Missing Manual (2nd ed.). United States of America: O’Reilly Media.
25. Weber, S. (2007). Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors: Book Publicity Through Social Networking. Stephen Weber.