Social Media Mistakes Can Hurt Your Job Prospects

We’re in a new age for job searches. Today’s employers look beyond what they see on your resume and recommendations and past what they hear in your interview. They want to get as holistic a picture of you as a candidate as possible, and that’s going to mean using every tool they have at their disposal, including social media.

You may be wondering, “Can social media affect my job interviews?” Studies have shown that a vast majority of employers will recruit via social media, and a significant percentage of employers will also use social media as a means of screening job candidates. Knowing this, it also stands to reason that certain things you say or do on social media might hurt your job prospects if potential employers are paying attention.

Here are some things to keep in mind relating to social media and your job prospects when you’re actively searching for a new position.

To go private, or not to go private?

There are different schools of thought on whether or not you should make your social media accounts private. There are some managers who will take you being completely private or having no social media presence as you either having something to hide or nothing to show. Right or wrong, this happens, and it could send you to the bottom of their list.

However, there are other hiring managers who are completely understanding of people who would rather keep their personal and professional lives as separate as possible, and will not care one bit that you have your page private.

What you might consider is some combination of both, depending on the field in which you’re seeking employment. On Twitter, for example, you could have a personal account you keep private, but a professional account you use for networking that showcases what you have to offer. This also allows you to more carefully screen what you do and do not allow potential employers to see.

Buying followers

Buying followers has, for the most part, become a thing of the past, but there are still people who do it. And if employers see you’ve bought fake followers, it will absolutely reflect poorly on you. It’s very easy to tell when someone has fake followers—the followers are likely to be bots, and you may lack engagement on posts even though you have thousands of “people” following you. Any engagement that does occur is likely to be shallow and meaningless. If you’re looking for work in a field that will use social media frequently, fake followers won’t get you anywhere.

Inactivity

A bad profile on LinkedIn or inactivity on various networks might reflect poorly on you. If you’re going to have a public profile, you may as well keep it active. It’s better to stay private or not have a profile at all if you’re just going to do nothing in an employer-facing social media profile anyway.

So, can social media have an effect on your job interview prospects? For more information about some of the ways social media can help or hurt your chances of landing a great new job in Fort Lauderdale, FL, contact Key Technical Resources, Inc. or visit our staffing agency today.

Categorised in: Career Advice