What blog about millennials and emerging media would be complete without a discussion on Social Media and Your Job Search. Hopefully my use of capital letters helped to reinforce just how important this concept is.
Only 4% of job recruiters don’t use social media in the hiring process. This is both good and bad news for the millennial job seeker. You can tell your mom with 100% assurance that no, you’re REALLY not just goofing off on Twitter, you’re actually searching for a job.
(I’m looking at you, Mom!)
As marketers, we likely know (or should know!) how to navigate the social world. Of course, this gives us an instant leg-up compared to other job seekers. There’s no learning curve involved, so we can just go about our merry way and apply. However, as marketers, we’re also likely to have our own active social presence. While I know most of us young’uns probably hear this lecture every day, (I’m looking at you again, Mom! Just kidding… I love you) its importance shouldn’t be trivialized. 9 out of 10 recruiters scope you out on social media before interviewing you. Are you proud of your social profile?
Think before you post.
Emerging media technologies including social media networks didn’t exactly come with a “rulebook” for jobseekers. If they did, it would probably need to be updated everyday as new networks pop up or privacy settings change. Keeping up with everything can certainly be exhausting.
Nonetheless: A good rule of thumb is to use common sense. Nothing on the internet is 100% secure anymore, no matter what you may think. Just because you think you have “iron clad” privacy settings doesn’t mean you do. Case in point: I know a girl who was very far in the interview process for a job. When the recruiter checked out her profile, she realized that she couldn’t see much of anything on her page but she noticed that they shared a mutual Facebook friend – a close relative of the recruiter’s. The relative scoped out the page for her and said that she posted a lot of inappropriate status updates complaining about her current job and photos of (herself) smoking marijuana.
Guess what? She didn’t get the job. The legality or ethics of that particular situation is a question for further discussion or debate.
What recruiters DO want to see:
Retrieved from JobVite.com
So while maintaining a killer web portfolio, LinkedIn page, and social search skills is important, equally important is to regulate your personal pages.
Have you ever found a job via social media? Do you have any “rules of thumb” for maintaining a professional presence online? For example, do you only post content that you’d be okay with Grandma seeing? Do you think recruiters have a right to check out your pages, even if it’s through other friends? Have you ever not hired someone because of something you’ve found on social media? Let me know in the comments below!
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Great post. One of the things I tell clients who are wary about integrating social media into their daily lives, is to ask yourself before posting: Am I adding value?
I find this helpful too — many times we may find ourselves posting snarky comments because we’re mad or frustrated — but what’s the outcome we want to achieve? We want to be validated or have our feelings acknowledged. By simply asking: What is the point of this or what is to be gained from this tweet — can help.
If I’m hiring someone, I’d want to see that they are using their social media presence to add value to conversations, not add to the noise.
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As a supervisor I work closely with our Human Resource Manager and even before we schedule an interview we are searching for the applicant on-line. We are looking to see what they have posted, their profile picture, mutual friends and so on. Recently I had an open position in my department and looked up an applicant that their resume seemed good however, after looking at her Facebook page I found some posts that were not appropriate and ultimately unprofessional.
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I feel that if you are job seeking you need to make sure your on-line profiles are just as professional as your resume.
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I love this post! When I have a job opening and applications start coming in, I do look at their social media pages.
Social media can prove to be a useful tool for both the job seeker and the hiring official. LinkedIn and Facebook are usually the first ones I check. My motto is, “Don’t post it if it’s negative or mother wouldn’t approve”. When I recruit, I look for someone who uses social media as tool rather than an outlet for their emotions. With that being said, I haven’t held a potential employees social media against them unless is involves alcohol, drugs, or something else that would harm the image of our company.
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