The Foreign Service Journal, June 2009

As an aside, LinkedIn is one of the sources mined by employers for back- ground on prospective employees. Its new advanced reference feature says it offers a “more credible and power- ful reference check.” All the em- ployer does is enter the company name and years of employment or the prospective employee’s name to find his or her colleagues, who can act as references. Education: The Future Is Now Most organizations have incorpo- rated social networks into their out- reach activities. So I was surprised that international schools lag far be- hind in utilizing this versatile medium. According to my informal survey, social networking among the alumni of these schools was initiated by individual alumni, using search functions online, and not by the schools’ alumni staff. This is clearly a missed outreach and fundraising op- portunity for these international schools, whose students most likely will go on to make more than above- 58 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 9 “I am a total convert. I truly believe in the social value of the Internet, though I am appalled by the lack of privacy and protection, the intrusion, the easy access.” S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT