There’s no denying that social media has influenced the job market massively revolutionising the way we think about job hunting. But this has left the job seekers somewhat at a disadvantage when it comes to impressing our employers and consequentially, has changed employers approach when seeking out new leads.
Not only has social media reformed the way in which we socialise but it has also altered the landscape of the recruitment scene. Paper is dead and digital is in.
On the one hand it allows the candidate to showcase some of their best work, but also creates digital loop holes into the real lives of what we are claiming to be.
Search your name on Google you might be surprised what will come up.
It has been reported that a number of Indian Tech companies are now refusing to accept paper resumes and only use social media profiles such as LinkedIn when recruiting. Now through the eyes of the employer, this is rather clever. Due to the frequent issue of boarder line embellishment on candidate’s resumes this seems a rather perfect way to test candidate’s honesty. In reality your new character reference is coming from Google, not your old employer.
Opinion is the biggest divider between individuals, especially in a work environment, and what does social media do more than thrive on its user’s opinions. A waitress from Texas was fired in 2014 after posting online about ‘lousy tips’ when a customer noticed the post and complained to the manager which resulted in her being fired. Not only does the employer want to know that you’re truthful but whether they can trust you to act as an ambassador to the company. (Read: 13 Controversial Facebook Firings)
The simplest solution to this is to make all social platforms private but to a potential employer could this ring alarm bells? Obviously they can’t judge people on a simple setting change but with the recruitment scene moving more and more into the digital age you might want to consider what you are putting out there.
We are still in the infancy of the digital age; social media began in 2004 but didn’t really take off until around 2007. We could argue that the rules of social media are by no means set in stone and potential solutions to our digital footprints dilemma could be on the horizon. Although, damaging digital behaviour now could still have a long term impact.
Rachael Roberts – Digital Campaign Coordinator, Searchability
