Social networks have long and firmly entered our lives. Just think: more than a million profiles can be placed on one platform, each of which is a kind of personal diary of a person, which can be used to track his life over several years: from appearance to personal interests and career success.
An experienced psychologist only needs to flip through your pages on social networks to suggest what mental problems you are experiencing and what complexes you are struggling with. Simply put, you can forget about anonymity and freedom of speech - we are all at a glance, and information about us is available to both friends and enemies. How our data from Facebook, VK and other platforms can be used by a recruiter or employer and how to tame the insidious Internet to your advantage, Irina Pevnaya, the head of the recruiting department of Profgallery.ru, tells especially for Marie Claire.
You are being followed
Facebook and VK have long ceased to be a meeting place for old good friends. Now these are full-fledged sources of news, as well as special tools for networking, career development and searching for information about a specific person. If earlier an unsuccessful comment or a photo from a party could only cause a sidelong glance from the side, now, "guilty", you seriously risk getting a scolding from your superiors and thereby tarnish your reputation. And these are not just words: in most companies, security services not only monitor and check the profiles of applicants before hiring, they often closely monitor your social activity on the Internet already in the process.
What information about the company do you disseminate? What posts do you comment on? Do you express political or religious views? All facets of your seemingly private life will now be under close scrutiny.
What can we say about HR specialists. For them, viewing your profile on social media is as much a professional duty as collecting references from past jobs. Of course, no one makes a choice in favor of a candidate based on his Facebook profile - professional skills are evaluated first. However, if there are doubts, an analysis of your behavior on the Internet can quite solve them. He will clearly tell your potential employers about what kind of person you are, what you do in your free time, how actively you develop professional contacts, and how successfully you communicate in professional groups. The profile can even tell you how much you will share the corporate culture of the company.
And here the question arises. If everything is so dangerous, maybe you shouldn't create profiles on social networks? Or delete them altogether?
Rushing to extremes is not the best solution, because most people, on the contrary, will perceive the lack of information about the candidate as excessive secrecy, secrecy, and asociality. Recruiters also have a negative attitude towards empty profiles, where there is no information about you besides the name and old photo.
You may disagree and say that you do not want to flaunt your personal life, that your absence from social networks does not in any way reduce the efficiency of your work - on the contrary, you do not waste time on all these meaningless comments, likes, reading posts and watching entertainment videos, but free you devote time to self-education and personal development. And in many ways you will be right. But, alas, the realities of the modern world are such that most of the communications goes to the Internet. This is where successful executives engage in company PR, develop a personal brand, look for useful connections, and communicate with clients.
Better to keep up with the times and instead of going offline, tidy up your public profiles and start creating an image that will benefit you.
Rules of the game
Today, many companies have recognized that social media is a powerful tool that can both work for the good of the company, and vice versa, create a lot of problems. The largest international players have already begun to actively regulate the behavior of employees in social networks. Microsoft, Citi, Intel, Cisco, IBM - all these giants seriously require their employees to follow certain rules when posting information about the company on the Internet and social networks. On the same basis, there have already been several high-profile layoffs.
Meanwhile, if you follow these simple rules, the fate of imprudent poor fellows can be completely avoided.
Forgive past grudges. Above all, if you are looking for a new job, refrain from actively scolding former colleagues and superiors. Of course, situations are different and the truth may be on your side, however, too hysterical comments and criticism can characterize you as a person who loves to scandal. No employer wants you to leave unflattering reviews about their methods of work and the environment in general. Therefore, if you want to leave a couple of affectionate words about your previous job, do it as tactfully as possible. If this comment is seen, be prepared to explain in advance what situation happened to you, and why you decided to move the solution of the issue to open sources, and not be limited to tet-a-tet.
In addition, if you really want to pour out the negative on your past employer, you can do it anonymously on specially designated sites. This way you will keep your own reputation and fulfill your social duty!
Think a hundred times - post once - a new topical proverb for those who post indiscriminately photos and videos on social networks. Surprisingly, some even manage to combine the incompatible: a photo of a beloved cat and a photo from an international conference, a company logo and a photo of a podshofe from a corporate party. Even very cautious candidates can come across photographs of a "incriminating" nature, who for the most part try to behave prudently and carefully (for example, a negligent competitor can post "compromising" information).
Nowadays, it is worth following not only your own content, but also who, where and when marks you in third-party photos. One bad photo - and you are guaranteed a crushing blow to your reputation. The same goes for the comments you leave online. It is worth refraining from sharp political and religious statements, participation in compromising discussions, family squabbles and scandals, also avoid a large amount of entertaining content on your page. Mistakes made by negligence, like a train, can drag on for months and subsequently scare off a potential employer.
Business time - fun hour. Be smart about your social media time. There are days when work falls out of hand, the head does not work and it just pulls to go to Facebook or Instagram and relax, leaf through photos, see how people live. But the main thing here is not to get carried away. It's one thing to go to Facebook at lunchtime or even get distracted for 5-10 minutes while working, and quite another to sit there for hours. Most employers are ready to turn a blind eye to the short-term pastime of their employees on social networks, if this does not affect work efficiency. But those who do not get out of there for hours will have a serious conversation with their immediate supervisor or a representative of the personnel service.
Check for errors. It seems like a trifle, but more and more employers are paying attention to the literacy of their employees. In some large companies, dictation in the Russian language has been introduced as one of the mandatory selection stages. It is compulsory for both line personnel and managers, and poor and C students are eliminated without regret. The same goes for obscene language and other rude language. It is not up to the manager who represented the company on social networks to make mistakes, especially in the official comments on behalf of the organization. Of course, many blunders are made out of inattention or out of haste. Therefore, before pressing the "send" button, re-read the prepared text a couple of times.
Leave complaints for friends. Over the past few years, many job seekers who have faced problems in finding a job have begun to actively pour out their negativity on social networks. Everyone and everything falls under the hot hand: recruiters, former executives, personnel selection methods, the economic situation, and many other factors that, in their opinion, prevent them from finding a job. Such comments will not work for your benefit, but will only sow doubts in the recruiter about the advisability of promoting your candidacy further. Of course, when looking for a job, you must definitely use social networks, but here you need to know when to stop - limit yourself to posting your resume in professional groups, write in your profile that you are looking for a job, but do not stoop to spam.
Liar, liar. Wanting to get the coveted position, some job seekers get carried away and at the interview exaggerate their achievements or significantly embellish their resume. The latter should match as much as possible with the data on your pages on social networks. For example, if you decide not to include your short-term work experience in the company “N” in your resume, then you should remove it from your Facebook profile. Another trick is often encountered when job seekers deliberately underestimate their age on their resume, but forget to change the numbers in their Internet profiles. Such situations will only put you in an awkward position when you have to blush and explain why you suddenly hid genuine information from a potential employer.
What to do: 5 steps to creating a profile that works for you
Start by cleaning your profile. Remove incriminating photos, comments and all other content that can be interpreted not in your favor. It is at this stage that you should think about a communication strategy - choose which topics you are ready to comment on, which photos to upload to the public. Complete your profile completely (not limited to date of birth and school), describe your professional experience, at least for the last 5 years, add additional education, choose a business-format photo for your avatar. It is important to remember that the more detailed you fill out your work experience, the more likely headhunters will find your profile by keywords in the future.
Separate the personal and the professional. If you use a profile for personal and professional purposes at the same time, it makes sense to use the privacy settings and hide photos and information that is private and does not relate to your professional activities. Some executives go further and create two profiles, closed to friends and family and open to work, where they describe their work experience, develop professional contacts, and interact with colleagues. If you do not consider it necessary to hide your personal life, then try to make the content balanced, with an emphasis on business topics.
Tell me who your friend is. The number of contacts does not mean quality, and if you have 10,000 friends on your profile, this does not mean at all that you have a lot of useful connections for work. Therefore, it makes sense to clean the contact list - most likely, you will find many people whom you not only do not know personally, but whom you have not even communicated with. In the future, try to add people from your industry who are close to you in terms of job level and professional interests. A well-formed network of contacts can help you with many business problems.
Life doesn't end on FB. In addition to Facebook and VK, pay attention to other professional networks: for example, Linkedn, Professionaly.ru, Executive. Unfortunately, Linkedin is blocked in Russia, but now it's easy to find workarounds to get to the site. Despite the restrictions on access, Linkedin remains the most popular source of search for executive managers among recruiters, which means that your presence there is simply a must. All three networks are geared towards developing professional ties and creating a high-quality business image.
The personality is versatile. Be sure to join large professional groups that discuss topics in your area of expertise. Show your professionalism by commenting on important industry events and it will not go unnoticed by your employer. It will not be superfluous to show that you do not limit your life to work and are a versatile person who is fond of sports, art or travel. There are a lot of thematic groups on social networks - choose the largest and most interesting in terms of content. Just do not overdo it with activity, otherwise employers will think that you are constantly traveling or baking pies, and work for you fades into the background.
About the author:
Irina Pevnaya - head of the selection department of the company Profgallery.ru. The project brings together managers in one place, regardless of their job search status and allows managers to independently plan their careers. Company website - profgallery.ru
Photo: Getty Images
Related materials
- The soul of the company, an intellectual or a narcissist: what your posts on social networks say about you
- Forever young: what is the secret of # 10yearschallenge success (and other flash mobs on social networks)
- How creative industries opened doors for women in business
- The most striking (and weird) stage outfits in the history of Eurovision