Going Brazen: A Career Networking Source for YPs
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If you're a young professional looking for a job, chances are you already know how important it is for you to have an online presence so recruiters can find you. So you probably have a Web site, Tweet regularly and update your blog. BrazenCareerist.com, a social networking site, allows you to organize the best of your online content in one place.
"It's really difficult for a hiring manager to go through your blog and your Twitter feed and find something really good," co-founder Ryan Paugh, 26, said. "Brazen is designed to carry that content, so they see what you want them to see."
It's like LinkedIn for young professionals, Paugh said.
"LinkedIn really caters to people with a lot of experience," Paugh said. "When you sign up, first thing you do is import your contact list. The thing about Gen Y is that they don't have a huge network and we help them build one. While LinkedIn helps you organize the contacts you have, Careerist is a place to help you meet new people you dont know but who are important to your career."
Cameron Plommer, author of the blog Untemplater.com, said he uses LinkedIn as an online resume more than Brazen because it is more mainstream, but he gets more value out of Brazen.
“I use Brazen to create and sustain real connections with people,” Plommer said in an email interview.
Another feature the site has is it allows you to post your top ideas, so you can “show people what you can do, not just what you’ve done.” The site urges users to post their ideas so that they can “show their true potential.”
Recently, Plommer posted a business idea in a few network message boards on Brazen, and the criticism he received helped him fine tune the idea and find two business partners, he said.
“In terms of career help, the Brazen community is a great place to ask questions about the job search, networking, finding a mentor and inquiring about different career paths,” Plommer says. “Instead of Googleing or tweeting a specific question, I know if I post a detailed question on Brazen I will get 3 to 20 thoughtful and valuable comments.”
The site is free to join and users can share their “social resume” with anyone. Recruiters pay for job posts, and in the future, the site may offer premium accounts for a small fee that will allow users to track statistics such as how many page views they are getting.
Although the company does not divulge numbers, since the site relaunched in 2009 its membership has grown 600 percent.
BrazenCareerist.com has offices in Madison, Wisc., and has nine employees.
Read more from YPNation on personal branding.
(Photo credit: Steve Garfield; C.C. 2.0)
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