TechTuesdays – Social Media and the Job Search

As college graduation dates near, the frantic search for a job has begun on college campuses across the country. Students are fine-tuning their resume’s, looking for that best-fit position, researching employers and attending countless interviews. I recall those days fondly. I would spend hours pouring through the paper or checking the bulletin boards at school. Technology sure has changed the game for today’s graduates in ways that are good and some that are not so good.

Today’s employers rely on more than career web sites or college career centers to seek candidates. According to a 2015 survey of Human Resource professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management, “82 percent of organizations said recruiting passive job candidates is top reason organizations use social media for recruitment”. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have been used to recruit candidates. According to the survey, LinkedIn was the most popular choice among respondents at 93%. This represents the “good” use of social media during the job search. If your profile matches the needs of the employer, they may find you before you find them.

On the not-so-good side, a candidate’s social media profile can expose a potential employer to the less-than-desirable persona that most likely will not be selected for a position. While employers are searching for a match, they are also screening profiles for reasons including: “obtaining more information about the applicant than provided in a resume (61 percent)” and “easily verifying information from a resume (50 percent).” See full article here

If a candidate isn’t tech-savvy enough (or smart enough) to protect their posts, perhaps they aren’t the best candidate after all. In today’s environment, the wrong post could mean the rescinding of a job offer or in some cases, termination after hiring. During my college job search days, my main concern was making sure my apartment answering machine’s outgoing message was changed to reflect my more “professional” side. I didn’t even have cell phone voice mail to worry about.

Technology certainly has made the job search easier for today’s graduates but with that ease comes greater responsibilities and greater risks.

This week’s TechTuesday video from snagajob discusses the Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media as it relates to the job search.

After viewing, ask yourself, if a potential employer looked you up on social media, what would they find?

Much success,
Lonnie