As a graduating senior, I've come to realize that pretty soon I will be entering the oh, so fun real world. The real world requires a lot of preparation and adjustments to be made before your average college kid can transfer into this new realm. One of these adjustments is learning how to cope with a new Facebook strategy: only presenting the photos and personal qualities that you want a prospective employer to view. That means taking down beer cans and late-night shenanigans. The use of social media in helping prospective employers discover you is crucial to presenting your professional strengths. In referring to social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, Lee Miller says in an article that "those profiles should be consistent and focused on those things you do well which would be valuable to potential employers." In one of his tips for maintaining a professional Twitter account, Miller says to "shoot for a 75 percent to 25 percent professional-to-personal tweet ratio."
The fact is, as we all grow up and change, there always comes that point where you'll have to leave behind the juvenile (at least partially) for a more distinct, professional presence on the web. Employers already are able to peruse through the Facebook profiles of potential job candidates with unfettered access to profile content. Coping with this change is easy. Don't post anything too dumb, and take down any pictures that make you look just a little too dumb. And like I said, if you really want to preserve your memories, leave behind the juvenile partially. You don't have to delete the photos from those fun nights, just make sure you clean up your professional profile by keeping them off the internet. And what do you replace this content with? An article by Thursday Bram suggests using sites like Brazen Careerist, which allows users to create "social resumes." Think of these social resumes as profiles where you post special work that you have done or commented on. Throw up a link to your latest blog post, write about a team project you worked on with a team, it's all there. As we get older, it's time to learn the value of just presenting what matters over the extra, unnecessary stuff. Using social media to network and post your latest work is extremely useful in career searching as long as you keep in mind the size of the field you're playing on in dealing with the internet.
What Harry Means to Me
12 years ago
It really bothers me how employers won't hire you if they see that you are a partier or having alcohol in an picture if you are above the legal age limit to drink. Social medias have to be used solely as a professional tool to seem desired by employers
ReplyDeleteGreat post. It made me realize what I need to do to my online profiles as I start my job hunting. In this age, everything on the internet that has your name on can become your resume- presenting both bad and good things about you.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most interesting about users' facebook pictures is that they begin to chronicle your entire life. Those who use facebook now may probably have an active account for the rest of their lives. If they have pictures up from now until, say, they are 90 years old, it can be pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about removing some pictures from my account. I'm not talking about pics that depict partying, though, but those that are from freshman year of high school.. I just think it's a little weird having those pictures on the internet... I want to only post relevant, or current pics, and of course those that don't make me look like a fool
There are other ways to maintain a professional presence on the Web. For example, you can adjust your Facebook settings so that it makes it very difficult (if not impossible) to be searched on Facebook or the Web. You can also change your name so that it's just your first and middle name, rather than your first and last night. And I totally agree that it is so unfair that you can be fired to enjoying a drink when you know that your employer probably did the same thing when he was our age.
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