Your social media platform had better be just as squeaky clean
➔ Scrub a-dub-dub. You don’t need three men in a tub you to tell how technology is overwhelming the job search. Virtually all recruiters use LinkedIn at one point or another and roughly half use LinkedIn exclusively.
From your end, we’re sure that you’ve heard about making your LinkedIn profile appealing to recruiters and prospective employers. But what about other social media?
Leave no stone unturned
Before you embark on your job search – or if you’ve already started and haven’t done so already – you really need to perform a copious review of any and all social media sites where you’ve left any kind of footprint.
You might discover something that was posted years ago – or something that may have been posted by someone else about you with (or without) your knowledge, or consent – that may negatively impact your job search to one degree or another.
We’ve all heard horror stories about recent graduates who neglected to remove those images of college drunkfests – only to have some prospective employer uncover them… to the candidates dismay.
While you may not have any drunken stupor skeletons in your cyber-closet, could there be anything out there that could discourage an employer from moving your candidacy to the next level? Now is the time to look.
In a similar vein, many recruiters now are looking at output that can be found on the web rather than in resumes. Articles, diagrams, product designs, etc. all can be discovered directly or indirectly.
One final note from the opposite perspective, if yours is any kind of design field, it’s imperative that you post your work samples online – preferably in more than one location. Prospective employers want and need to see your work samples – which you most likely will share at some point anyway. This will help them to decide favorably or unfavorably about your candidacy. Even if they don’t like your work, you’ve just saved yourself time, effort and aggravation by skipping over them.
In the end, the web giveth… and the web taketh away.
Comments