4 Things You Must Be Doing if You Don’t Want Your Facebook Profile to Damage Your Career
|
Is your Facebook profile picture damaging your career?
Believe it or not, social media is fast becoming the preferred method of recruitment and you shouldn’t be too surprised to hear that your ‘Girls on Tour Selfie’ is not doing you any favours when it comes to your future career prospects.
More and more employers and recruiters are now heading over to Facebook to score their next hire; with Facebook becoming such an intelligent tool, there’s no wonder we’re all over it when we’ve got a position to fill. And it’s not just for finding candidates; many employers are now using social media to scout out their potential new member of staff to make sure they’re getting what they’ve asked for – put it this way: your social media page is an extremely honest reference!
|
|
So, what can you do about it?
Your best bet is to delete all of your social media accounts and steer well clear of the internet… Just kidding, like that’s ever going to happen! Now I know my Facebook profile is never going to disappear, without it I can’t post to our company Facebook page. What I can do though, is make sure it is ‘private’ (not that mine needs to be because I rarely post anything on there!) and I have a restriction that stops anyone posting any content to my timeline without my permission – this eliminates the risk of any of those inappropriate friends (we all have them) posting that drunken photo on your wall from 10 years ago when you knew no better!
You can also just try and be a nice person on the internet – if you see that Sarah’s Mum has posted her opinion about leaving the EU and you don’t agree with it, there’s no need to tell her where to go; we’re all entitled to our own opinions (even if it is better left off Facebook).
Don’t air your dirty laundry on the internet. This point shouldn’t need explaining but just in case… No one really needs, or wants to know, especially your potential new employer! I’d also think twice about writing things in the heat of the moment; once it’s up there, it’s up there. You may think you can delete that status from your timeline that you wrote about you and your Boyfriend having an argument, but has it really been deleted? Or is the data just being stored somewhere else?
Lastly, the profile picture! You know the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover? Well the same can’t be said for potential candidates and Recruiters. Of course it’s not realistic to say you must be wearing a smart suit and a tie in your profile picture, but just be mindful of what you’re putting as your ‘shop window’, if you like. If your profile picture is you on a wild night out, barely holding it together, you’re much more likely to turn off potential employers than you are to impress them. Try and stay pretty neutral in your profile picture, after all, this is the first thing people see when they search for you so you want to make a great first impression.
Imagine finding out that your dream job came along and you were in the ‘considering’ pile until they checked you out on Facebook and saw you arguing with strangers over the internet, and then you all of a sudden went down in their opinion! It’s important to know that we recruit based on skills and the ability to do the job, but it’s no surprise that a potential employer will have a tainted view of their new member of staff!
Of course, you will never hear about the opportunities that you missed, but you can be sure to impress any potential employers by keeping your Facebook ‘PG’ and your profile picture professional!
About First2Recruit
First2Recruit, are an owner managed recruitment consultancy providing a full recruitment service including; permanent and FTC positions in Accountancy Practice and Insolvency across the UK.