Alan Kennedy found his job at a software marketing firm through a social networking e-mail invitation. with a fellow worker at Hubspot, Jim Teeters. Mr. Kennedy found his latest job through a social networking e-mail invitation. Photo by Jodi Hilton for The New York Times.

---

The New York Times tells how Alan Kennedy, 54, found a job without looking, thanks to a former coworker who searched through his Facebook and LinkedIn contacts and flagged him as a possible match.

Times reporter Julie Weed demystifies online recruitment in “Finding New Employees, via Social Networks.”

Laid off from his position as an engineer last November, Kennedy is now enjoying a new career as with a company in Cambridge, Mass., that sells Web-based marketing software. Although it isn’t an encore career with a social purpose, Kennedy is quite pleased with his new job. And the friend who referred him received a nice bonus from the company.

The same process can be used to find encore careers in education, health care, government and the nonprofit sector.

Weed points out:

• Hiring companies are paying for services like the one that found Kennedy. They do so by asking their employees to add a tool to their Facebook pages that notifies employees when openings occur and identifies friends who might have the skills needed.
• The company employee then invites these friends to apply for the job.
• If a friend is hired, the referring employee may be paid a referral bonus.
• The list of possible candidates is only available to the employee and not to the hiring company or the software provider, so privacy is protected.
• Gladys Stone, a corporate recruiter in San Francisco, advises individuals not to wait for an invitation. “Use your social networking sites to reach out and tell everyone you know what kind of job you’re looking for,” she says.

Share your experience using social networks.

Join Encore Careers groups on these networks:

• Flickr
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube