If you’re a recent refugee from one of America’s public school systems and you’re just getting started at a local community college or a four year college or university, the time has come to pay more attention to your social networking habits.  In the past, you likely used social networks to socialize (imagine that!) but now, those posts you make to Facebook or Google+ could actually start working against you or for you in your search for a dream job after graduation.  Can social media help snag you a shot at a career?  Let’s talk about that.

In a recent study by Jobvite, 1 in 6 workers reported that their Facebook profiles had helped get them hired.  In fact, about 16% of all people who got jobs after college in 2011 used their social networks to land positions — a number representing an 11% increase over last year’s numbers.  Nine in ten job hunters say they maintain a social networking profile online, and the most helpful social network for job seekers was not LinkedIn:  instead, it was Facebook.  18,400,000 people said that Facebook literally got them their jobs, while LinkedIn accounted for only 10,200,000.  To check out the rest of these statistics, have a look below: