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It’s Spring semester, which means graduation is in the air for many Seniors. Some students may have jobs, or offers, but many Seniors will likely not be accepting a diploma with a job secured. One aspect of job hunting that has evolved over the past decade is the screening process. A background check previously sufficed for credibility on who you are as a person. However, as social networking has grown and changed, so have these screening processes.
Many employers now check an applicant’s Facebook page, as well as other social platforms they may deem relevant, such as Twitter or LinkedIn. Here are several tips to help eliminate social networking as a hindrance to your future career.
Facebook
There is any number of things that may be considered inappropriate by a recruiter or hiring manager that could be found on Facebook.
- Cater your photos. Pictures that portray you in a less-than-professional manner should be untagged and deleted, if possible, when looking for a job.
- No profanity. Status updates and posts on your wall should not contain any profanity. Many managers find this offensive and see online profiles not as a personal page, but as a page managed and run by a representative for the company and brand.
- Be careful what you share. If you are a user of Spotify or another type of sharing service, make sure the information being shared is something that would build face for a hiring manager, not hurt you. If you’re trying to listen to some Weezy, try a “private session”.
- Optimize your Facebook! If you have an internship, management positions, or a job, add these things to Facebook. When a hiring manager is looking at your Facebook, this will be beneficial to reiterate who you are as a business professional, as opposed to a “crazy partier”.
- Get connected. You can use Facebook as a networking tool, by also joining groups like ECU College of Business and connecting with alumni and fellow Pirates.
LinkedIn
Many students are actually late adopters when it comes to LinkedIn. The COB e-recruiting service is currently connecting incoming students with LinkedIn, but many of the upperclassmen I have met and had class with are either not on LinkedIn, or are very inactive. I would strongly encourage students looking for an internship or a job to get on LinkedIn, join groups, and be active in that space. Here are some tips to optimize your LinkedIn and help you stand out from the crowd of other students on LinkedIn.
- Create a solid headline. The headline is the text next to your name with your job position. Your headline should stay current, so if you interned last semester, but are no longer an intern, your headline should reflect your change in the work force. This may also be used to help find a job by adding something like “currently seeking a full time job in Medical Sales”. This will allow recruiters to better target and identify you for relevant jobs.
- Add a strong summary. This should contain who you are, your major, your strengths, and your desired areas of employment. This gives other users a better grasp of who you are and what you are capable of.
- Optimize experience section. Many times I see other students who have paragraphs or many grammatical errors in this section. This should contain bullet point responsibilities similar to a resume, as many employers view Linked-in as a sort of online resume. This is vital for the success of your profile and networking.
- Join groups. I have had several opportunities arise just from talking to people in different groups on Linked-in. Two good suggestions are East Carolina Alumni Association and East Carolina University (ECU) College of Business as crazy as it may sound, Pirates really are willing to help other Pirates.
- Add skills. These will help you show up in search results as being keywords for your profile. This is very important and very helpful.
- Add extras. Differentiate yourself from your classmates. Did you make an awesome PowerPoint? Put it in SlideShare and connect it with your LinkedIn. Tweet much? Connect Twitter to LinkedIn for a better online representation. Do you blog? Add that. This is where you get to be creative and show who you are, and what you do.
Although it is still controversial, it seems your boss will be Facebook creeping for quite some time, so if you can’t beat them, join them. Build yourself as an online brand. This will help you find a job and network with people in your desired industry.
