The Good and the Bad of Job Hunt Through Social Media
Companies’ choice of new employees is getting more and more influenced by the candidates’ social media presence. But as our connections in sites like Facebook and Google+ extend and finding a job online gets easier, there are also many pitfalls along the way.
Social media gives you the opportunity to tell so much more about yourself than a simple resume. Your social profile gives your employers a clue to the way you communicate and write, the way you think and most importantly – your real interests and aspirations. That can be very good for you, but it can also be bad, because social media profiles could easily expose you if you lie when applying for a job. Promoting yourself through social websites may not be a good idea if you share too much personal information or have “inappropriate” friends. Experts advise to be careful what you share publicly and if you’re using photos that may not be considered appropriate by a potential employer. Avoid profane language and extreme comments on your past jobs and delicate issues.
Various studies show that about 60 to 80% of the companies are using social media to recruit employees; some would even check up the profiles on social websites instead of reading the resumes of the candidates.
Moreover, most people look for jobs with the help of their friends and acquaintances, which is much easier on social sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. Job-offering websites are starting to integrate social media. For example, Job.com, a career website with more than 30 million users, and TweetMyJobs.com have just announced the integration of a ”Who?” button on their web pages, which enables the members looking for a new job to find it via their connections in Facebook.
The new feature notifies you if your Facebook friends are connected to the firm you would like to work in. If your friends have connections in the company you can ask them to make a recommendation for you directly through Facebook or just ask for information about the company and get some advice on applying for the job. The president of Job.com, Brian Alden commented on the new button: “We’re excited to be adding a social networking element to our job search to help job seekers realize the potential in the social and professional relationships they’ve already built.”
Related posts:
Facebook comments:
Leave a comment