Social Networking Sites May Hold the Key to Employment Search Success
It’s a dog of a job market out there. Job hunters need to do all they can to help find that illusive perfect job situation. Those needing immediate employment in this era of diminishing-opportunity should consider every tool possible. If the seeker is not an internet savvy individual, it’s detrimental to their search efforts. It’s important for those less technologically advanced to begin digging-in and understanding that computer-driven networking is not going to stop progressing nor go away anytime soon.
The world is a new place, driven by high-tech products and services that change every few months. Communicating and developing a group of friends and acquaintances in the social networking realm is essential to an effective employment search. Individuals who are not interconnected in this way are missing critical and important opportunities in searching for a job.
Social networking done right will help employers in the elimination process, but social networking done wrong, can cost a potential hire dearly. Most employers and human resource managers know the value of searching a person’s online presence and will do so as a natural course of selection when considering a candidate. In fact in a study, Microsoft did in 2009, their research found that 79 percent of those responsible for hiring individuals reviewed the online activity of job applicants.
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendster, Multiply and blogs are all favorite places for those peering into a person’s lifestyle and level of integrity, thereby providing valuable insight into a person’s activities and values. Seventy percent of those same human resource managers said they have turn-down a potential employees application based on negative information about the individual usually provided by the individual themselves in their social network content. Such content as lifestyle choices, compromised photos and videos and possibly disparaging comments allow a valuable look into a person’s character. Job seekers should ask themselves, “would I hire someone with a photo on their social networking profile of them with a large group of friends in party mode, with red eyes, drinking straight from the bottom of a bottle of whiskey?” This is unintended, self destructive behavior at its finest!
An often overlooked aspect of proper social networking conducive to getting a new job are the friends a person connects to in their online profile. Once a profile is clean and favorable for someone looking for employment, the importance of remembering the friends pages they are linked to is invaluable. If your friends look like they just got out of prison with tattoos of skulls and crossbones about their bodies, it’s probably a good idea to limit those connection; at least while you are looking for a job. Hiring managers will always look at associations to help judge an individual’s charter and potential employability. It’s also important to remember that many bosses and managers will continue so review online content even after you are hired or throughout a probationary period. So if a new job hire plans on adding-back those friends that use foul four letters words every other word in their profile, they should reconsider.
Many individuals believe their privacy settings limit viewing of their otherwise compromised content on Facebook or other social network accounts. The truth is all it takes is a friend, family member or business associate deciding to post photos they have lifted from your private pages on their public pages. With today’s search engine technology, everything is searchable, indexed and able to be inter-related. Privacy is really an illusion on the Internet; we are talking about a world-wide network of private and public computers with mega storage capabilities and various caching and archive sites, all saving as much information about individuals as possible. Once an image or written post is out there in cyberspace, consider it there forever.
Those looking to improve their job search expectations should focus on creating one really polished and completed profile rather than several incomplete ones on many different social networks. This only proves to frustrate many managers searching for information on a prospect and shows that they are unable to complete projects, potentially leaving work-related jobs hanging.
Those who are out of work as opposed to individuals looking for greener pasture while employed with another company should make it clearly known on their social networking pages of their talents and availability. Many in a social network may have connections or know of valuable positions currently open but not realize someone on their network is ideally suited for the position. If the word is not out there then no one knows the prospective job seeker is available. On the social networking site LinkedIn, this may be as easy as changing a setting to “Available.” On the other hand, discretion is called for if a job seeker finds themselves currently employed and don’t want to run the risk of losing a current job.
While the job market is tougher than it has been in decades, the tools available for finding a job are more diverse than ever. Avoidance of connecting online will hinder the effectiveness of a job seeker in today’s world of interconnected communication. Those searching for work in our difficult economy need to use every option of the modern world available to them. Social networking sites are an effective medium waiting to be exploited and put to their most effective use. Close attention to the proper use of this Internet phenomenon is crucial to maximizing the chances of success while avoiding the pitfalls and unintended consequences of self-sabotage when looking for employment.
Joseph Nino Rudolph
