New Tool Helps You Find Employment Through Facebook

"Facebook" and "job hunting" have rarely been synonymous. The social network, largely regarded as a place to connect with friends and family, has had difficulty bridging the gap to the professional world. Sure, there are a handful of business-focused Facebook apps, but mixing your career with your personal life on Facebook has long been frowned upon. Until now.

Simply Hired, a search engine and recruitment advertising network, recently launched a personalized job search tool that integrates with Facebook to help you find jobs based on the current or previous work titles you list on your Facebook profile. It also lets you browse your friends' employers and search for job openings at their companies.

"It's an easy way to find a connection to a company when you're job hunting," says Gautam Godhwani, CEO of Simply Hired. "When you see that one of your friends is employed by a company you like, it's up to you to make the connection by sending them a message to learn more about the position or the company," he says.

Here's how it works: Visit SimplyHired.com and click the "Login to Facebook" button at the bottom of the page. This gives Simply Hired access to your and your friends' profile information. Nothing is posted to your or your friends' Facebook walls or News Feeds-your activity on the site is kept private. You can learn more about Simply Hired's privacy policy here.

Once you log in, you can search for jobs based on keywords and location, or your can browse the companies that employ your Facebook friends. If you find a job or a company that interests you, click your Facebook friend's picture to message them. You'll be redirected to your Facebook message center.

Clicking on a friend's employer will display open job listings. Or, if there's a particular employer that interests you, you can type that name into the keyword search bar and available job listings-as well as your friends who work there-will be displayed.

Another cool feature: the "fun facts" link on the left navigation bar. Clicking this will show you statistics such as the most popular companies among your friends, the most popular locations, recommended searches and jobs at your favorite companies (which is generated from the businesses you've "liked" on Facebook).

"Simply Hired is showing what's possible when you make it easy to find jobs through friends," says Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. "Personal relationships and professional networking have always been the best ways to find a new job. By integrating with Facebook, Simply Hired is bringing this to life online and helping users tap into their social connections to personalize the job search process."

Staff Writer Kristin Burnham covers consumer Web and social technologies for CIO.com. She writes frequently on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. You can follow her on Twitter: @kmburnham.

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