Glassdoor introduces Inside Connections, company reviews from your Facebook friends

There is a lot of fuss going around about using your social network(s) in job hunting. The theory is that your friends can help you find a job. Some how, some way you should be able to bet your future on the folks you know.

On LinkedIn, it’s possible to store your resume (or its equivalent) online so that Recruiters can find you. There isn’t a very good way to actually engage in a job search. If you are disciplined enough to search for all of your friends and acquaintances, you can build a network that may expose you to some opportunities.

Glassdoor is the on-line Yelp for companies. Now they're introducing a Facebook integration called Inside Connections. Glassdoor is the first to provide a comprehensive research environment where results are driven by the users' social network.

A trip through the pages of Glassdoor will tell you about working conditions, the job interview process, salaries and what employees think of the CEO. It’s a sort of a Michelin guide to employers. Over many years, the company has curated an enormous bounty of reviews, reports, salary data and help for navigating the internal HR process.

By itself, it’s a diamond in the rough waiting for people to come and get smart about the companies they want to work for. Increasingly, Glassdoor is recommended as the first stop in any job hunt. The primary question you can answer on the site is “What’s it like to work for Company x?”

This week, Glassdoor is merging two other streams of data to create a single environment for job hunters.

Glassdoor has always had a flow of millions of job listings. When people come to research jobs and companies, they get the webs most comprehensive picture of the inside of the company, the jobs available, what it’s like to work there and the details of the hiring process.

With Inside Connections, Glassdoor allows job hunters to harness their Facebook network to round out the rest of the services. Using Facebook to log in to the site makes it possible for Glassdoor to evaluate your network to see who can help you with the job hunt.

It’s a Social Job Hunting Trifecta. Opportunity, inside info and connections.

Glassdoor is built on anonymity and the company goes to extreme lengths to keep members’ information private. Posting a review or salary on Glassdoor is still anonymous. You still get to choose the information you share, such as your job title and location.

There are a host of services in the marketplace that try to serve job hunters by using social information. Glassdoor is the first to provide a comprehensive research environment where results are driven by the users’ social network.