Online presence: Social media savvy
Unfortunately, in the fervour of publicising our experiences online, we often forget that everything we display or say online is permanent. Deleted tweets can be retrieved, pictures once uploaded but taken down remain lost somewhere in cyberspace and worst of all, glimpses of our personal lives — including telephone numbers and residence addresses — are often open to public. Considering this, it’s hardly surprising that organisations across the world have started to screen potential employees by looking at their online presence.
According to a survey conducted by online recruitment giant Jobvite in 2012, nearly 92% of recruiters in America now actively participate in ‘social recruiting,’ i.e. searching for talent over social networking websites. The phenomenon may not be as common in Pakistan yet and many like Samia Zuberi, an HR professional might even oppose the idea. “Frankly, I don’t think there is much to be gained from viewing peoples’ personal lives and activities on social media,” she says, calling it an invasion of privacy. “Employers are looking for specific job skills and general competence. These are not related to any applicant’s personal life!”
Nonetheless, Jobvite also revealed that recruiters thoroughly scrutinise an applicant’s online activity, noting that more than half of them would have an unfavourable reaction to spelling or grammar mistakes in the social profile. Pictures, comments, ‘likes’ and group memberships we innocently share might end up depicting us differently from what we would like potential employers to think of us and hence, cause serious impediments in our professional growth. “I think surveying an applicant’s online presence tells much more about them than a regular health and credit history ever can,” says fresh HR graduate Muneeza Maqbool. “Even the way one types online speaks volumes about them and employers have the right to know who they are letting in. This is even more important in Western firms where company image and corporate mission statements are of great importance!”
Look smart on LinkedIn!
The purpose of LinkedIn is to help potential employees get noticed by potential employers, providing a platform for them to connect. As it is strictly professional, your LinkedIn profile must be crisp, organised, relevant and error-free. Be sure to pick a profile picture that is professional and shows you at your best formal self.
The best part about LinkedIn is that it allows you to showcase your skills and achievements to others. Recruiters make their first judgement call based on how well information is presented. Therefore, it is imperative that you read whatever you upload multiple times to ensure there are no mistakes. LinkedIn also allows users to share examples of their work, such as research papers or articles, etc which are futile if not organised and relevant. To spark the interest of recruiters, your work experiences and samples should be listed chronologically and preceded by a brief background to help the reader understand better. Filter out all samples which are not relevant to the career field you have chosen as recruiters are unlikely to read unnecessarily long resumes. Be careful whatever you say online. In a recent interview with CNN, LinkedIn spokesperson Lindsey Pollak said, “Remove complaints about your job or boss, any confidential information and photos of yourself acting in a way that could be constructed as inappropriate.” Remember you want to be an asset to the company — not someone they could be embarrassed by in the future.
Clean up your act!
The survey conducted by Jobvite listed LinkedIn as the most preferred social networking forum for online recruitment, followed closely by Facebook and then Twitter. While the former is meant for this very purpose, the other two are much more personal and therefore, need to be maintained lest an employer be reviewing them.
• Privacy settings: You might not agree with the idea of social recruitment and wish to keep your personal and professional profiles separate but you can’t stop recruiters from peeping in. In such a situation, it is best if you utilise the privacy tools available on most social networking sites and hide your uploads from strangers and even specific people.
• Re-evaluate your contacts: A man is as good as the company he keeps. Employers are likely to examine your online contacts to get a better understanding about your personal life. Therefore, it is advisable for you filter out your list of contacts that might ruin your virtual image, such as those with quirky pseudonyms or questionable online activity. You never know one of your ‘friends’ might be your future employer, judging you on that humour article or meme you shared a few weeks ago!
• Re-evaluate your virtual interests: The same policy applies to the profiles you follow online. Virtual memberships of professional organisations, career-related groups and sharing information regarding corporate projects one has undertaken are likely to attract more employers than posting on movie forums and other, casual topics.
• Proof read: As suggested by Jobvite, minor typos can discourage a recruiter from reading your profile further. Hence, you must remain careful about grammar, spellings and punctuation to create a more professional impression.
• Say no to negativity: Not only should one look out for typing errors and spelling or grammar mistakes, they must also be vary of posting any racial, political or negative comments on their profiles lest a recruiter be viewing it. This is extremely important when it comes to large, multinational organisations who are particular about corporate image and wouldn’t hire someone with contradictory values.
Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, November 16th, 2014.
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