Students' Use of Social Media for Job Seeking

A Recruitment Guide for Accounting Firms

Joshua Herbold, PhD, CPA, and Bambi Douma, PhD

As technology continues to evolve, many organizations are increasingly turning to social and professional networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to recruit new hires—and accounting firms are no exception. In a survey by Robert Half International, executives were asked which technologies would be most useful in their firm's future recruiting efforts (“Woo Candidates with Web 2.0,” Journal of Accountancy, July 2008). Almost two-thirds (62%) said that professional networking sites would be most useful, and more than one-third (35%) said that social networking sites would be most useful. (Multiple responses were allowed, so some executives likely planned to use both).