You’ve painstakingly crafted individual cover letters for various choice employers and spent hours pouring over bulleted details of your resume. Before you hit “submit,” there’s one more crucial detail to examine, your social profiles.
Could your social media image be killing your chances of landing your dream job? Probably. Ninety-two percent of recruiters now use social media as a part of their recruiting process. When it comes to finding the perfect candidate, employers are tossing the “don’t judge a book by its cover” philosophy and doing just that, taking a glimpse of your social media profiles and making a snap judgment of your likes, your hobbies and your professionalism. The good news is since recruiters critique your social media profile like a book cover, cleaning up your profile takes only surface-level measures. Here’s where to start:
Stay Private on Facebook
Don’t want to lose sight of good times had at Coachella 2014? You can still show your fun-loving, concert-going, IPA-drinking side, just be choosy about who sees it. Make sure your privacy settings filter out the general public and set your privacy settings to “friends only.” Then do a quick double-check by viewing your profile as public to see what potential recruiters and hiring managers might see when they view your profile. Then, use your best judgement to adjust cover photos and profile pictures accordingly.
Keep it Professional on LinkedIn
Let’s get impersonal—pictures of you with Fido, your bf(f), anything featuring you in a wedding veil/tuxedo, must go. Remember, LinkedIn is the social media opposite of Facebook. Its sole purpose is to promote professional networking and job recruitment. With this being the recruiting platform of choice for hiring managers, an active LinkedIn presence is imperative for job seekers, make sure yours is a good one. Treat your profile as a professional portfolio with a clear headshot, detailed work experience and endorsements from former colleagues or clients. Don’t forget to show career interests by listing industry affiliations and include work samples when possible.
Choose your Tweets Wisely
Be cautiously authentic. X (Twitter) is an inherent platform for opinion, expression and bias. Naturally, recruiters that dive into this social outlet are hoping to get a real snapshot of your values, interests and affiliations for one critical measure, to see if you’re a good fit for company culture. You don’t have to shy away from being yourself, but be wary of how your online engagement may be perceived. Profanity, prejudice angst and offensive commentary, can all make you appear callous and, therefore, a risk to any established culture of diverse professionals. Before hitting the “send” button on an application, do a quick scan of your Twitter timeline, clean up any inappropriate tweets and re-evaluate who you follow.
Your friends, family, pets and hobbies, encompass who you are, so it’s ok to flaunt them on the right platforms. But, when you’re on the job hunt, it’s time to assess your social image from a professional standpoint. Give recruiters a hint of your personality, but be honest with yourself when critiquing your social media persona—does your social profile represent the type of candidate professional leaders can depend on?