I was recently invited to speak with a number of business students about some of my perspectives on ‘finding a job’ after graduation. I was curious about their perspective on how their ‘social media presence could impact their future career.’
I made a point: when an employer is hiring the employer will likely do everything possible to check your background; and asked a simple question: what does your social media presence say about you?
Reactions were mixed: ‘but you can’t do that’; ‘I use passwords’; ‘I only put info that my grandmother would approve of on my Facebook’; ‘they do!?’
The fact is that many employers make it a regular practice to search a candidate’s Facebook page and any other available social media platform. They also look for a professional presence on LinkedIn. To date this kind of practice has no rules!
So, what can you do?
Here are a few thoughts:
• Make sure that you have a professional presence; update your LinkedIn and any other place that you can be found.
• Focus your professional presence on the value that you bring to work; what you enjoy about your career.
• Let the potential employer know your social media contact information; show that you have nothing to hide.
• If you are going to comment do not make negative remarks about your employer, or previous employers; co-workers, ‘friends’ or family!
• It is prudent to ‘password protect’ your Facebook page. Many people only want to share family pictures with selected contacts so restrict who can view their page. Because you cannot control the comments of your ‘friends’ it may be a good idea to restrict these to.
• When you are hired, make sure that you ask about the employer’s social media policy; follow-it even if you have moved to another job. There is a whole grey area around social media comments; public image; customer solicitation and conflict of interest that is still to be resolved in the legal world. http://www.hrreporter.com/blog/canadian-hr-law/archive/2012/04/30/social-media-and-the-employment-relationship
All of the social media platforms available to us come with two sides; my recommendation is to make sure that you are on the positive side of developing a strong network, learning from others and participating in the global workplace.
I welcome your feedback and comments.
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