All of us here on the totaljobs blog have talked about the importance of utilising social media to get seen by possible employers. Undoubtedly most of us use social media in our day-to-day lives whether it's updating your profile on Facebook, blogging or Twittering. The simple fact is that, like it or not, social media is here to stay and there's no escaping it.
Used in the right way, it can work to your advantage. However, use it in the wrong way and it may cause you more harm than good. How can this be I hear you ask? Well let me tell you a short story about one person I know who lost out on a job thanks to social media.
For the sake of this story we will call the protagonist Pete. Pete, like a lot of us, would regularly update his friends on Facebook and Twittered about his latest antics over the weekend. At this point you're probably thinking you know where this is going, but wait.
Six months prior to Pete applying to a role at a competitor company that he had always admired, he had travelled to
Having forgotten about the weekend and not realising that someone else had posted the photos from it on Facebook, Pete trundled off to the interview at the company he had always wanted to work.
The interview went ok and he felt confident that he would be asked back for a second round. However the company in question, relatively impressed by his performance in the first interview, did what more and more companies are doing now -- they Googled him.
His Linkedin profile came up first....good, good all looks like it checks out, dates at his previous employers tally with his CV and there were a couple of strong recommendation stating he was professional and innovative in his business approach......Facebook next.....hmmm, what have we here.....Pete's name had been tagged against the pictures innocently put on another's profile page, chronicling the fun had in Amsterdam. Now, I'm not judging the company in question but, rightly or wrongly, after seeing the pictures they decided that Pete's application would not be taken any further. Besides, they had lots of other strong candidates to choose from. The feedback was given to Pete via email stating that, having discovered the pictures, they felt he was not as strong a fit as some of the other interviewees. And that was that - his dream to work at the company was over.
Personally I find pre-referencing somewhat worrying. Firstly, we all have a right to an online presence. Secondly, what people get up to outside of work hours is - in my opinion but not in most - irrelevant to whether they can perform a job well. This said, the reality of the current time is that employers are using social media searches more and more to make judgement calls on candidate applications.
The moral of this story, I suppose, is while social media can undoubtedly aid you in your career development and choices it can just as easily condemn you. If your online profiles are searchable (watch those privacy settings) then searched they will be. In this particular case it wasn't even Pete's own profile that scuppered his application, it was content held on someone else's profile page that lost him his dream role.
Do you truly believe that is true? You did a superb job expressing your point, but I think you need to put a little more thought into this debate and maybe post an answer to the other side of this argument.
The story I wrote about did actually happen. The answer is somewhat implicit in the blog. If you have an online profile it's important to be careful of what people might find when they search under your name. Make sure you think about what you say and do online as it might be found by a prospective employer.
I think it should be remembered by everyone that anything posted online is likely to be seen forever, by everyone: parents, girlfriends/boyfriends new and old, spouses, current and potential employers, country club secretaries, bank managers...
The list goes on. People, being people, will judge based on what they see - some positively and some negatively.
You can mitigate this by regularly googling yourself (especially if looking for a job) so at least you are aware of any issues. In some cases, offending items may be removed, but remember caches and copies will still exist.
The other way is to ensure your online presence is either flattering (which may mean using social media only in a 'professional' capacity, or invisible, so you are not easily identifiable - a common name would held here!
Everyone should google themselves. They might be horrified to see what comes up! Thanks for the entertaining post.
Make sure your facebook photos can only be viewed by the people that appear in them. It's the safest option!
Good point, well made. I use linkedin for professional and facebook for my personal life. Never really thought about the latter becoming part of the former without me knowing it.
I think it's a good tip to check that your linkedin dates match the dates on your CV, never thought about that... I think most people use social networks to keep up with friends, including linkedin - which I only joined because I felt it rude not to when invited by several colleagues (old and new). Didn't think that prospective employers would look at it though so thanks.
It is totally wrong to judge someone on their facebook profile, but to be honest as an employer you might as well! I just wouldn't admit it to the candidate when asked why I didn't get through - surely there are legal implications here?
Very interesting way to market on facebook. I also found a way to automate a couple very powerful methods of getting users. You can grab ID by groups or pages or wall posts with this software. Then once you have them you can do a friend add to your logon or sudo profile. This by passes the captcha codes too. There is also a cool chat program that you can setup scripts and keyword to work with. This program, when I use it I can see a spike in my site traffic. It is sweet...
This article isn't exactly a ringing endorsement on using the social web to better your employment chances etc - if anything, if you don't use Facebook, Twitter etc then nothing can be brought up against you.
In a similar way, Alan Sugar (Lord, as he is now) was once asked why he never smiled in photographs. His reply was that if his straight face was used in a positive newspaper article about him, the worst was that he could be thought somewhat dull. If, however, his smiling face was used in a negative newspaper article people would think him uncaring, even a rather nasty piece of work!
So, if you are saying we shouldn't use Facebook for those lighter moments in our lives, why use it at all for the jobsearch if it may trip us up at a later date?
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This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like 'Mixview' that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you're listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of "neighbors" will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune "Social" is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
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