Are social media the modern job fair?

Need a designer for one job, or a freelancer for a month? New networks match worker bees to beehives

Social media are no longer just a way to learn that the annoying guy in your college dorm is bagging groceries rather than working in finance; it’s suddenly a bona fide hub where job-seekers and potential employers are making connections.

Take Tammy Collins, who at 40 years old was working as an AmeriPride accounts receivable clerk and part-time bartender when she decided to wanted to take a shot at a freelance career in graphic design.

Though she had some experience designing logos and Web sites for local businesses, she had neither formal training nor knowledge about how, or where, to find clients.

Turning to the Web, she stumbled onto crowdSPRING.com, a social networking site aimed at helping people find and hire graphic designers, and helping designers find clients.

Since first visiting the site—which allows businesses and individuals to launch projects with specific budgets and designers to submit logos and other designs to try to win those accounts—Collins has won 13 projects, as well as a connection that led to full-time position.