How to Use Social Media (while searching for a job)
They're always watching you...
Firms are going to creep on you.
Like a crazy ex, they’re watching your every move on social media.
Of course they’d never admit it, but firms are glued to social media during recruiting season for two main reasons:
1) When you meet 500 students in one day, it can be a little tricky to match a name from a resume to a face (and a conversation).
2) Social Media can provide a ton of insight when a firm is deciding whether or not to offer you a position.
So let’s maximize your chances of landing that dream job this recruiting season with our own Idiot’s Guide to Managing Social Media while Searching for a Job.
Facebook is like a waiter that refuses to write down an order – it can’t help, it can only hurt.
Absolute best-case scenario, the waiter gets your order right and you tip them 20%, which you would have done anyway if they just wrote down the order.
With Facebook, your profile won’t help you get a job, but it most certainly can hurt your chances. After all, you’re in college…
So what to do?
Option 1: Delete your account. Not fun (and probably not realistic), but certainly effective.
Option 2: Change your name. When I went through recruiting, my Facebook name was Mud Pie. If you don’t want an alias, use your middle name as your last name or just use an initial.
Option 3: Don’t make any changes, but diligently monitor your privacy settings. In the ‘Who can look me up?’ section, your answers to each option in secession should be 1) Friends, 2) Friends, 3) No.
It’s definitely a great exercise to build your linkedin profile. This is the perfect forum to state your career objectives and detail your work experience.
A well-written profile can build you up in the mind of your future interviewer. It could be the last minute info a senior associate needs to advocate on your behalf to a decision maker. The point is, your linkedin profile can be a positive influence in helping you land your dream job.
And when you add your picture, always represent yourself as a business professional…in other words, completely forget the notion of being cool.
I love Instagram (@jmcostarica, cheap effort to gain more followers). But my profile does not match who I am as a professional.
So this one is easy – don’t have a public profile. Require your followers to be approved (at least while you’re interviewing for a job).
Another easy one – require your followers to be approved by you.
RocketGrad
I’m not sure if you would consider our website ‘social media’. Regardless, we are one of those sites that can seriously help you land that job.
Linkedin is great, but it is a jungle. A professional ecosystem with billions of people from art teachers to plumbers and everything in between.
RocketGrad is niche – so we help employers gain the specific information they need from you to create their recruiting lists and finalize hiring decisions in the accounting, finance and IT fields.
Tinder
Swipe away – can’t see this really being a risk. I cannot imagine a senior associate at a firm telling their campus recruiter, “I connected with this girl on Tinder and she never messaged me back, so…yeah…she shouldn’t get an offer.”
Yik Yak
I think you’d be hard-pressed to meet someone older than 23 that’s even heard of Yik Yak. Could be an issue in a few years, but for now, Yak on.
I know it may seem trivial, but your online presence can honestly affect your job prospects.
Google yourself and see what pops up. Go down the list and make sure every instance of your name is something that either helps your brand, or at worst, doesn’t affect it at all.
If your Google search shows something that you’d rather not have a future employer see but you don’t know how to get rid of it, check out this link for some tips that may help you out.
Reach out to us if you have any questions at all – josh@rocketgrad.com or brad@rocketgrad.com…
Josh
