Your Social Media Persona
I got a call yesterday from a publishing house in New York City. One of my former interns had given them my contact information to use as a reference for the job she was applying for. I was pleasantly surprised to get the call.
A lot of the former interns who have worked for me, or with me, go out and look for jobs. And a lot of them use me as a reference. Rarely do I ever get a call from an employer who is interviewing these students. I always wonder why.
According to researchers at Cornell University, people are more likely to lie about their work experience on a traditional resume than they are on a social media page, like LinkedIn. In fact, the study found that 92% of college students lie at least once on their resumes.
The study says that websites such as LinkedIn can lead to greater honesty when it comes to résumé claims such as experience and responsibilities. That’s because claims are more easily verified in a public, online setting, so liars are more likely to get caught. —Associated Press
Sure, many people fib on their resumes to make themselves look better. They say their hobbies include reading classical literature or writing poetry when really they spend the majority of their time watching reality television. These things are hard to verify. Which is why people have interviews—to test the legitimacy of the actual resume.
But college students, and others who are looking for work, need to be aware that employers are savvy. They are looking you up online before they call you in for an interview. And if they’re not—they should be.
When I was in graduate school, I was an online reporter intern for Inc.com. I made friends with the interns on the print side who were hired to help put together the magazine’s Inc. 500 list. It was 2006 and I wasn’t yet on Facebook.
The print team were looking to hire a new group of interns for their project, and they were looking up every college student applicant on Facebook and finding out some very interesting things. One girl, that looked impressive on paper, had photos on Facebook of her smoking a bong at a party. The editors were not impressed. I believe her resume went into the circular filing cabinet—the trash.
It was my first glimpse into how social media was affecting hiring practices, and I never forgot it. Here are some other tips on how to make yourself look better online for potential jobs:
Clean up Facebook
Make sure you don’t have any compromising photos on Facebook. Do a search for images that your friends have tagged you in and make sure they’re clean. Even if you and your friends have privacy settings in place, that doesn’t mean this info is ever really private. If an image makes you think twice, get rid of it.
Professional Email
As an adjunct professor, I’ve seen some pretty ridiculous email addresses from students. It’s time to ditch cupcakekitty69@webaddress.com and get something more professional. If an email address like that comes into my inbox, either my spam filter will catch it or I will—and I won’t find it amusing or cute. When you are out there sending your resume and clips for potential freelance jobs, you need to put your best foot forward—and most often that starts with your email address.
Be Consistent
Make sure the same information you have on your resume matches what you have on your social media sites—because people will check. Any discrepancies automatically raise a red flag. The information should match—or at least be similar enough that it doesn’t look like you are lying.
Of course you are going to tailor your resume, pitches, and cover letters to each new opportunity, but don’t fabricate. If you dropped out of college a few credits shy of graduation, you did not graduate. If you paid for a seminar or professional development class, but didn’t really attend, you didn’t go.
Stay on Good Terms
If things don’t go your way on a job, and you don’t part ways amicably, do not use social media to “get back at them” because it only makes you look bad. Avoid complaining about clients online all together.
Not only can the client easily find out, if they are ever contacted by a potential future employee, they won’t hold back. Plus, no future employer wants to take the chance that they might end up the brunt of jokes and complaining on your Facebook or Twitter. They’ll just hire someone else that isn’t a loose canon.
Social media makes our lives easier in some respects, like staying in touch with family and friends, as well as sharing information. But unless you are careful, your online persona could get in the way of your professional one.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by xilius.
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“One girl, that looked impressive on paper, had photos on Facebook of her smoking a bong at a party. The editors were not impressed. I believe her resume went into the circular filing cabinet”
Of course, every editor who sneered at seeing that is a paragon of virtue, right? They never got drunk, got high or otherwise did things that were silly in college, right?
While the reality is as you describe, I think employers need to stop pretending that the very people they work with, including probably some of their top performers, are perfect. I’d bet that most of those editors have done things just as ‘bad’ as that girl. What they didn’t do was leave behind evidence. So, once again, we get the Victorian era hypocrisy – yes, we get trashed on the weekend, but if it’s not seen, we’ll pretend it never happened. And, really, should employers want to control every hour of our lives? Does it matter if the 23 year old smokes on Saturday night? If so, does it matter if the editor drinks?
No one’s perfect—that’s for sure! But when you are competing against dozens, of qualified people for a job or a contract, the devil is in the details.
When I taught 3D modeling and animation in college for a couple of years, my students would sometimes be annoyed that I would correct their speech and writing vigorously. I explained to them that they will never get a second chance to make a good first impression, especially in that field since it is very competitive.
They too felt as you did, that it wasn’t right to jump to conclusions about someone’s ability just because of they way they speak, or write, or their lack of concern over their public image. Whether you feel it is right or wrong is not the point. That is just the way it is. If you can’t properly pronounce words people will think you are uneducated or less intelligent than another candidate. If you don’t mind flaunting your indiscretions on the web for all to see, it speaks volumes about your judgement.
No one is perfect, however, will you be viewed as someone who celebrates and condones bad behavior or someone who can tell the difference between right and wrong. To state that employers are being hypocritical is a juvenile cop out. They know no one is perfect, they just choose to not hire people who celebrate their lack of good judgement.
The reason people don’t use references that much is because references are virtually worthless from a hiring perspective for 2 reasons:
1. People are afraid of legal ramifications – what if they say something bad?
2. Everyone knows someone who has something nice to say about them
That said, if companies don’t do their due diligence, they can be sued for negligent hiring. So if the girl doing drugs kills someone (by accident) / steals something / messes up an account, guess who ends up being held accountable.
Is this right? Probably not. But most companies, I believe, would rather be wrong and avoid a law suit then take their chances. Especially if it’s just one of 100 applicants.
Yes, the devil’s in the details.
Just to play the devil’s advocate here for a bit—some of the best editors I know appreciate a good bong. Good thing Facebook wasn’t around when they were starting their illustrious careers. I’m just mentioning this because I come from a country that doesn’t have draconian bong laws (though that may change with our latest Omnibus Bill).
Speaking of laws, I don’t know too many loose canons, but tight ones can give us a good sense of moral duty. And some canons are even worth imitating at regular intervals, too, when it’s time for a round of good fun (just to counterbalance all that moral duty stuff).
Sharon, winking away
all knows all time pass it ,That said, if companies don’t do their due diligence, they can be sued for negligent hiring. So if the girl doing drugs kills someone (by accident) / steals something / messes up an account, guess who ends up being held accountable.
Is this right? Probably not. But most companies, I believe, would rather be wrong and avoid a law suit then take their chances. Especially if it’s just one of 100 applicants.
First i thank you for this interesting information. Although many students don’t know how to make resume properly after college. They all simply edit resume each others. Or They download resume copy from internet which is highly professional and they simply edit it with their own information and experience. Actually they don’t know what to write and how to write in resume because many students are never come across with appropriate resume during their college period. They only think how to make strong resume that enough to attract the attention and experience is one to the first thing that many want to see it first. That’s why they resort phony experience for making resume so strong. Anyway i liked this educating advice.
Some great tips here that I think are relevant to 90% of people! Just the t&C’s of Facebook is enough to make anyone cringe is you actually read them!