We’ve all heard the stories where people have been sacked for stuff they’ve posted on Social Media. Whether they’ve been slagging the boss off or calling the receptionist names, it only takes someone to share the post with the boss and you could land yourself in a whole heap of trouble.
But have you considered how your social media presence can affect potential job applications? You might not think that anyone is bothered with checking your social media accounts after you apply to an organisation, but you could be wrong. A lot of companies are checking accounts to see what they might be in for if they invite you for interview, so it’s important to make sure your accounts are set up to pass the checks. Follow our tips to clean up your accounts so they aren’t the reason you’re not getting interviews.
Set your accounts to private.
This one should be a no-brainer really. A quick google search can bring up Facebook and Twitter profiles, and if your accounts are open for all to see, they can see your photos and status updates. Set your profile to private and make sure your profile picture isn’t something that could be perceived as offensive or is you passed out drunk on holiday!
Untag yourself from those photos.
Your wall may be lots of pictures of you and your friends enjoying nights out, having fun and not really doing anything wrong. But lots of photo’s of you out drinking every weekend could send the wrong message. If your employer thinks you’re out drinking all the time, they could question your reliability and your ability to turn up to work on time. Depending on the sector you might be working in, they might have very strict policies on being hung over or smelling of booze. You might not be the party animal that your profile depicts, but think about removing some of those tags to help improve how your profile could be viewed.
Be mindful about what you post.
You might view your social media platform as your medium to share your views, opinions and political views, but sharing unpopular views could put potential employers off inviting you for interview. Of course, they would never admit to this, but it’s highly likely that sharing that post about immigration could make it look you hold certain views which aren’t shared by your new employer. The easiest way to avoid this is by setting your accounts to private as previously mentioned. But if you don’t want to do that, just be careful about what you share. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t say face to face – it’s easy to hide behind a keyboard, calling strangers names and throwing around threats like there’s no tomorrow, but to a potential employer, you look like someone who can’t handle conflict and get irate easily. That isn’t a quality they are looking for in a potential employee, so you aren’t getting the interview.
Don’t moan about your current job.
This one should be easy, but if you’re profile remains open, make sure to delete any posts if you’ve bad mouthed the boss or current job. You wouldn’t do this in an interview with a potential employer, so don’t do it on a public space where anyone can see what you’re posting. You may feel your comments are justified, but you just come across as a moaner to your potential employer.
Think about when you’re posting.
If you currently have a job, resist posting during the work day. A potential employer may take it as you not being serious about your work and may feel you would slack off at your new job. This is important where you post regularly throughout the day – the odd day here or there isn’t going to cause alarm bells, but every day over a number of weeks projects an image that you’re using social media at work, and no one wants to hire a slacker.
Find the balance.
If you’re leaving your account open, you need to have something on there – don’t clear down your account that much that your potential employer thinks you have no life and social skills, or they think you’ve cleared out the racy stuff and are wary of what that was! You need to balance your account to show some of your character and interests, without being too weird or too controversial.
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