Rebecca Schlowsky received a master’s ­degree in teaching from Simmons ­College, but never expected that she would end up back there a decade later after making the transition from teaching to administrative work. Social media was key for her landing a job as an executive assistant.

When I updated my LinkedIn profile, I didn’t expect such a big response from recruiters. I was contacted three to four times within a three-week time span by ­recruiters looking for executive assistants. I ended up turning it off, because I had a job that I liked.