Social career management: Social media and employability skills gap

Abstract

Social capital theorists have established decades ago that better connected people do better in life. The emergence of online social networking sites have given a new impetus to building and exploiting connections for career management. While professionals acknowledge that social networking is essential for business and development, new graduates coming into the corporate world are not equipped with the uptodate skill set. Through the lens of the improved employability objectives, this paper draws conclusions from a recent study of UK business graduates and their use of social networking. The paper presents for discussion an employability skill set for contemporary business professional and calls for higher education to address the skill gap. Further research directions are discussed.