I’ve been in the restaurant business for 34 years and have had the opportunity to work in Operations, HR, and Training with several great companies.  As fate would have it, I ended up in the Restaurant Management Recruiting industry in 2004 and have enjoyed helping people find a Restaurant Manager position or make a change to a better position.  A few years ago along came MySpace, the first social networking website I remember hearing about … but it was for teenagers (like my children) and young adults.  We used MySpace in our business but mostly to check a candidate’s profile (and also find out what my children were posting), which we know employers were starting to do, to make sure they were not sadistic or a Satan worshiper, a heavy party person (with beer bongs), or something else strange.  Often we had to instruct a candidate to make changes to their MySpace page. 

Then a couple years ago we started hearing about Linkedin, an online social network for business people … then FaceBook which is like the adult version of MySpace.  It still amazes me how much people divulge about themselves on these open websites.  But none of this is the point of my writing today. 

In the past 12 months I have re-connected with about a dozen old business friends from my days with Marriott/Roy Rogers and Hardee’s.  It’s been sort of like a High School reunion but on the business side.  It’s amazing to see what has happened to people.  The true beauty of this phenomenon of online social networking is that I have been able to help two of my former colleges at Roy Rogers get jobs in what is the toughest job market in 60 years.  One guy sent me a resume and I recognized his name and sure enough, on his resume was Roy Rogers Restaurants, 20 years ago.  He just started his new job which I was able to place him in.  In another case a former employee of mine (from 30 years ago) found my name on Linkedin and contacted me because she was looking for a Restaurant Manager job.  I was able to hook her up with our Maryland office and she was placed.  And currently I am in the process of helping another Roy Rogers friend (from 25 years ago) find his next position. 

So the morale of this story … if you can get through all the garbage online, move past all the spam and cons, there is this great reward in connecting with people from your past, and maybe even helping them!  Get your business profile out there, watch how much personal information you share, be completely honest in what you post, always keep pictures and everything about you professional, and search for former colleagues … you will be amazed and surprised at what you find.