They have their degrees, resumes, and internships, but how do recent college graduates get the job?

Online social media is a growing trend in the professional networking world. Top Fortune 500 CEOs to entry-level employees are using PrincePerelson local placement agency and LinkedIn.com to make connections and job search.

Although the hiring process has changed a lot since the last generation graduated college, it’s still about who people know and what people know. The difference is, it’s online and knowing how to use it may determine who gets hired. You can visit https://www.makipeople.com/resources/graduate-recruitment-strategy to learn more about graduate recruitment strategies.

But that doesn’t mean everyone is on board. There are pockets of professionals and industries that don’t know how to use it or refuse to use it. Still, with the national unemployment rate above eight percent, more young professionals are turning to it to give them an advantage.

“These websites open you up to a diverse world of companies and professional contacts,” says Christina Paxman, a graduate teaching assistant in the communication school at the University of Iowa, “This new technology is shaping the way people get hired.”

As of last December, professionals are signing up on LinkedIn at a rate of two members per second, totaling about 150 million members in over 200 countries, according to LinkedIn.com’s annual report. That makes it the world’s largest professional networking site in the world.

LinkedIn connects professionals and college students to other professionals through a process called “connecting.” One person sends a request to connect to another person and once the other person accepts, they become virtual friends. This is similar to the social networking site Facebook, which has the same connecting process. However, LinkedIn is designed for professional networking rather than social.

Paxman says the size of the site lets recent graduates connect with professionals across the globe, allowing them a glimpse into many industries and professions.

“Messaging is just one of many tools LinkedIn and Twitter offer. It’s a great way to ask for advice or tips from someone who is already doing the job you want. I’ve heard that leadfuze linkedin is shepherding a lot more salespersons these days, and is proving to be a good interface,” said Paxman.

It’s hard to know how many young professionals are using these networking sites but, according to LinkedIn, students and recent college graduates are its fastest growing demographics.

Paul Spooner, a 2011 graduate from the University of Iowa school of Journalism and Mass Communications, used LinkedIn to search for jobs and make connections in the public relations industry.

“LinkedIn was a gateway to many companies and professionals I was interested in. It let me connect to them in a way no other resource could-directly,” said Spooner.

Even though he was active during college, having held seven internships, he said it was difficult to find entry-level positions.

“It’s a tough time to search for jobs, but having my resume on LinkedIn and sharing my other skills and interests really gave me an advantage over other applicants who did not have that online brand,” says Spooner, who now works full time at the public relations firm Osborn and Barr.

LinkedIn counts executives from all Fortune 500 companies as members and 82 percent of Fortune 100 companies use it to hire, according to the site. But some professionals and smaller companies are still not using it.

“It’s very industry and age specific. Right now there is a specific sector of people and businesses that are benefiting from it,” says Paxman.

Kara Kelly, broadcast news director at KCRG Television 9 news station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says social media doesn’t work for her when she’s hiring.

“I don’t waste my time on there. I think your work should speak for itself, but that might be because of the industry I am in,” says Kelly.

She says the broadcast industry is small; therefore, professionals make connections on a face-to-face level.

“People in this field get connections from knowing people who know people who know more people. It’s easier to pick up the phone and call someone who can help you rather than looking them up online,” said Kelly.

Kelly says she will probably never have a LinkedIn profile or use it to look at job applicants.

Another issue hiring managers have with the new technology is not knowing how to use it. And some don’t want to learn either.

“I have never used LinkedIn. I let other staff post to it because I don’t know how it use it,” says Jan Rigotti, human resource representative at the University of Iowa Alumni Association.

Rigotti has been in human resources for about six years, but she says she has no desire to learn how to use online social networking sites.

“The way I hire has worked very well for me without screening applicants on those sites,” says Rigotti.

But it’s not only the ones doing the hiring who are unfamiliar with online networking sites. Students in certain majors sometimes don’t have exposure to what these sites are or how to use them.

“I don’t have a LinkedIn because I had never heard of it until recently. It’s not something they teach or tell you to do as a psychology student,” says Kayla Sivesind, a senior psychology major at the University of Iowa.

Sivesind says she probably didn’t know about the site because her career will not start until after graduate school. But she still wishes she would have known for internship opportunities.

“Not once have my professors ever talked about social networking,” says Sivesind.  “I think it’s a disadvantage not to know about it when it comes to finding information on my field.”

Paxman, the graduate teaching assistant, agrees. “There are pockets of students and majors who get over looked and don’t get the instruction they need for finding jobs,” she says.

Paxman also adds though, when it comes to searching for jobs, LinkedIn may have some pitfalls.

“I’ve wondered how valuable it is for younger professionals to use as a search engine for jobs,” she says.  “That part is mainly used by higher management positions. I would recommend they use another resource for that.”

Still, the task of searching for employment and hiring is changing quickly. In order to be successful, this new technology is forcing young and seasoned professionals alike to adapt to the new environment of online social networking.

“Now that I know about it, I’m going to make a profile tonight and tell other psychology majors to do the same. It can only help in the long run,” said Sivesind.

The post LinkedIn: How Recent Grads Are Using It To Get Ahead appeared first on KRUI Radio.

On November 12th’s KRUI Roundtable, the news team spoke with Andrew Smith, the communications director for Occupy Chicago, gave their thoughts on recent efforts in the US Senate to repeal some FCC net neutrality regulations, and analyzed the Penn State rape scandal.

Listen to the full show here:

Occupy Chicago

Andrew Smith, communications director of Occupy Chicago, updated the news team on what’s happening in the Windy City. As the founding member of the tech committee, Smith designed their website (occupychi.org) and created a social media presence on Facebook (facebook.com/occupychicago) and Twitter (@OccupyChicago) to spread the word. When the group began in early October, Smith said “Where I can be the most beneficial to the movement is through the website and social media,” and then took on the big responsibility of disseminating information about the movement. Before he garnered this position, everything was coordinated through Reddit.com, which was useful only to a certain extent. The new website Smith produced makes vast improvements, giving each committee a dedicated page so those who wish to learn about a specific part of the movement can find it easily.

The home page of the website serves as an outlet to media organizations to post press releases, direct actions and information from general assemblies, all in an effort to combat what Smith sees as “skewedness” in the traditional media. He wanted to make the website “a transparent source of information” that wouldn’t paint them on a canvas with a biased brush as he says the media already have. According to Smith, the fact that the mainstream media have pointed out some elements of anarchism, anti-Semitism, socialism and communism are “a part of their already set agenda, and that the webpage serves as a way to counteract that.” While in fact these elements have been fairly prevalent in some of the occupations across the nations, like on Wall Street and in Oakland, California, Smith denounced these individuals’ tactics and feel that they are not indicative of the entire movement.

Net Neutrality

Andrew Smith stayed on the air with the roundtable to discuss the Senate GOP’s effort last week to repeal some of the rules and regulations set up by the FCC to impose “net neutrality” upon Internet service providers (ISPs). Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas proposed the resolution because of GOP attitudes toward the government forcing companies to conduct business in a certain fashion, which they believe would be an overstepping of their powers. The Senate vote was strictly along party lines, with 46 Republicans voting to remove the regulations and 52 Democrats voting to keep them, with Senators Inouye and McCain of Hawaii and Arizona, respectively, not voting. The federal agency bypassed Congress in December 2010 to move forward with this new policy, which demands that ISPs not discriminate against any website or web user in terms of the content that they wish to view or obtain. There have been many complaints by consumers in recent years toward ISPs and the amount of money they charge for their Internet service. For example, Comcast’s 105 Mbps service in Chicago costs a whopping $199.95 per month for a great level of speed. The issue lies in comparative markets. Other countries, like South Korea, get these sorts of speeds for a fraction of the price. Proponents of this policy feel that it is because of a lack of federal regulation in the Internet market that result in this kind of consumer abuse, and that net neutrality will fix the inequities.

Andrew Smith also agrees with these sentiments. He said that “companies were already involved in the first place, and that the original legislation is woefully inadequate,” in terms of ISPs being able to control the content that their users are able to access, and their ability to change their client’s speeds if they access illegal information, like child pornography or unlawful torrent files that include music or movies. He mentioned that a lack of net neutrality legislation would give governments the upper hand, saying in regards to the Occupy movement, “There is a lot of information that governments would want to control because it is of dissent.” The same could also be said for the tea party movement or other demonstrations that are critical of government policies. Smith also added that, “You can directly trace the movement in New York City back to the Arab Spring” and their use of social media to rally individuals to protest, and compared what the Middle Eastern regimes have done to the Internet in their countries to dispel these groups from organizing online and through social media. The rest of the news team spoke in terms of the GOP looking at the issue in terms of corporate rights, while most Democrats view Internet access as a right because it allows individuals to express their free speech rights guaranteed by the 1^st Amendment of the Constitution. In fact, the United Nations has declared that Internet access is a human right, although that declaration does not have any legal standing.

Most conservative legislators and pundits deny the net neutrality arguments and the UN’s declaration, asserting that the Internet is a product and is not entirely subject to the First Amendment. Jazz Shaw, via conservative blogger Michelle Malkin’s site HotAir.com, reported on a story out of California where a Santa Rosa-based company called Sonic.net offers a 1.0 Gbps (one gigabit/second, or 1000 Mbps) at $70 a month, which is ten times faster than Comcast and almost three times cheaper. He argues that the technology exists, and all it takes is market freedoms and competition to force the bigger companies into following suit instead of federal intervention. Similarly, Seton Motley from conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s website BigGovernment.com has reported on how the lack of government interference has allowed the tech industry to become one of the most prosperous in the United States, with only a 3.3% unemployment rate while the national average stood at 9.1%. He also mentions that net neutrality essentially attempts to fix a nonexistent problem of ISPs controlling content, which is true in regards to legal activity. No matter what side you take, it will surely be a big debate that won’t cease until both corporate and individual freedoms are both maintained on the Internet.

Penn State Scandal

The terribly tragic rape scandal at Penn State University that has grabbed the attention of the national media was also discussed at the roundtable. Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was charged last week with multiple counts of abuse for crimes that go back as far as 2002.

A graduate student had walked in on Sandusky engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with a young boy in one of the school locker room showers, which then prompted him to tell the longtime head football coach Joe Paterno about what he saw. While Paterno told his supervisors, he did not call the police, and an investigation was never held. After the story broke, Paterno was let go from his position for not taking further action to prevent any future crimes. Penn State students responded very violently by rioting in the streets of their campus, setting fires, throwing rocks at reporters, throwing mattresses out of windows, and tipping over a news van.

The roundtable debated the consequences of Paterno’s firing and thought that he was largely a media scapegoat and didn’t deserve to be fired before the end of the football season. They also inferred that this kind of student response could happen on the University of Iowa’s campus, bringing up the outrage over Darrel Johnson-Koulianos’s altercation with the law over marijuana charges as an example.

The post Nov. 12 Occupy Chicago, Net Nuetrality, Penn State appeared first on KRUI Radio.

By Jennifer Hoch

All Hallow’s Eve. Today, our country associates this fun-filled holiday with dressing up, trick-or-treating, ghosts, goblins, and much more. Halloween is said to have originated from the 16th century, representing the Scottish name. One all-puzzling factor of the holiday is what it has been turned into in the costume industry. It is no question that girls use this night to dress up as scandalously as they wish, having an excuse to do so.  Dressing up in the least amount of clothing possible has become traditional through the costume companies’ variations of a “slutty nurse,” “french maid,” “sexy cowgirl,” or “bad-cop.” When girls are deciding between what costumes to wear, they are influenced by their friend’s decisions and feel pressure to dress in the same way.

One of the rising issues in this matter is the age that girls choose to wear these shocking costumes. When little girls see that their elders and role models are displaying themselves in this type of risky way, they feel the need to display themselves in a similar manner. While Halloween continues to be a time of fun filled spooks we are left in question of how much is too much.

These types of costumes do not teach children about equality or self-worth, but rather about being uncomfortable in order to fit into these portrayed gender roles. Girls are aware that they will turn more heads wearing only a skimpy dress over a Shrek costume. 

As women’s status in society evolves, we must question the type of roles that are being portrayed at times. By dressing up in close to nothing, women are reaffirming the roles that they have worked so hard to get rid of.

An important factor in Halloween costume planning is the ongoing censorship of costumes that has stemmed from wanting to be seen as political correct. Children are told what not to wear, such as an Indian, hobo, or gypsy. There seem to be very few costumes these days that allow girls to dress up as doctors or politicians without taking a scandalous route. Young girls turn to what they are offered, such as a princess or a witch, which makes one question the kinds of messages that are being instilled in our youth. Some of the spookiness of Halloween is taken away due to parents allowing their children from a limited menu of options.

So this year, when you begin to celebrate the festivities, think about the subliminal messages that current Halloween costumes have to offer. Remember the original purpose of Halloween and most importantly, have fun!

Roundtable Sources:

(http://www.history.com/topics/halloween  (http://www.novareinna.com/festive/world.html

The post 10/22: Halloween Costumes appeared first on KRUI Radio.

During his exclusive interview at KRUI, Reich discussed the current economic crisis and President Obama’s future plans. He also outlined his own plan that he believes would fix key issues.

Reich gave a speech Wednesday September 7th at 7:30 p.m. in the IMU Main Lounge.

Click below to hear the full interview.

[audio:http://www.krui.fm/assets/news/Reich%20In%20Studio%20Edited.mp3]

The post Robert Reich Interview appeared first on KRUI Radio.

For the Second year in a row the Iowa Board of Pharmacy recommended that marijuana be reclassified so that is available for medical use at https://www.discountpharms.com/cbd/.  Like last year, the proposal received no consideration from state legislature—making American history. 

A Des Moines Register poll showed that over 70 percent of Iowans think marijuana should be illegal for people who just want to get high.  But two thirds believe that marijuana has medical value and that cbd + cbg gummies should be open for therapeutic use.  

For more information about Telemedicine for medical marijuana recommendations, click this over here now!

University of Iowa journalism student Austin Chadderdon talks to people in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to find out what they think about the currently illegal substance—marijuana. 

So, you’ve decided to try delta 8 carts for your vape pen. Smoking the herb is still a popular consumption method, but this newer method allows you to get those therapeutic cannabinoids without the potentially adverse respiratory effects smoke may cause. For beginners, the SMOK Nord kit is ideal to introduce new vapers to the pleasure of vaping, for those who want to save money can get the best dab pens for sale at vapeactive.com. Vaping an og runtz isn’t just a convenient way to obtain the benefits of cannabis without having to inhale smoke, it is easy and it is relaxing, you can find e-liquids and this therapeutic cannabis in Liquido24 for you vape. It also offers several other benefits. If you are looking for the best dry herb vaporizer, you will come across many lists over the internet. For the non-cannabis user, you can find a variety of flavours for vaping on Indejuice Vape Liquids. To make sure you experience the benefits of medical marijuana, read on to learn all you can about vaping it.

Oil is one of the most common products that you will find to vape medical marijuana, but you can also vape dried marijuana in its raw, bud form, or use other concentrates such as shatters, crumbles or waxes. Vaporizers, many experts believe, is healthier than smoking because it doesn’t release toxins into the respiratory system. There are three main methods of vaping, but all of them involve heating marijuana to the point of vaporization. If you still prefer smoking marijuana, check out the best blunt wraps reviews here.

The post Iowan’s Share their Opinions on Medical Marijuana appeared first on KRUI Radio.