social media and the job hunt
DESCRIPTION
Social media can be a terrific help when you're looking for a job. It can also hurt. In this presentation for The Briefcase Project for F.E.G.S. in New York City, Amy Vernon outlined the pitfalls and benefits of social in the job hunt.TRANSCRIPT
Social Media and the Job Hunt
Amy VernonGM, Social MarketingInternet Media Labs
Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey
Everybody’s Doing It
• LinkedIn has 225 million registered users• Executives from all 2012 Fortune 500
companies are members• LinkedIn members did more than 5.7 billion
professionally oriented searches on the platform in 2012.
• More than 2.9 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages.
Source: LinkedIn
The cardinal rule
What does that mean?
• Assume everything you do online – even in a “private” email – is public.
• Conduct yourself accordingly.• No drunk photos.• No cursing.• Proofread.• If you’re not sure if you should post it, don’t.
Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey
Social Media Can Hurt You
Source: onDevice research, via Trackur
What you should do
• Tell your career story• Fill out your profile completely• Use a quality photo (i.e., not blurry, not cut
out from a larger photo)• Use keywords – think Search. • Join groups and network
The Platform Makes the Difference
• LinkedIn: For business only. Don’t be cute. Don’t share cat videos. Spelling counts.
• Facebook: Feel free to share cat videos. Don’t post drunk photos. Spelling doesn’t count as much, but don’t post gibberish.
• Twitter: Spelling counts, but space-saving abbreviations are OK.
Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey
Every Social Profile Counts
Of employers who look up candidates’ social profiles:
• 65% said they do it to see if the job seeker presents himself or herself professionally
• 51% want to know if the candidate is a good fit for the company culture
• 45% want to learn more about the candidate’s qualifications
• 34% said they have found content that has caused them not to hire the candidate.– Half of those said that was due provocative or
inappropriate photos and/or information – 45% cited evidence of drinking and/or drug – Other reasons: displaying poor communication
skills, bad-mouthing previous employers, making discriminatory comments related to race, gender, or religion, or lying about qualifications.
Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey
Email: Be Professional
• Gmail is preferable to Yahoo, Excite or Hotmail.• Whatever domain you use, don’t be cutesy in your address.• Good: [email protected]. Not good:
[email protected]• Your own email address (i.e., not shared with a partner –
[email protected] ) • Don’t put lots of numbers in your address.
[email protected] [email protected] • Avoid the spam filter: “many email filters are set up to look
for numbers, underscores, and superlative adjectives. [email protected].
Partial source: Consultant Journal Photo by comedy_nose via Flickr Creative Commons
Questions?• Amy Vernon• [email protected]• Twitter: http://twitter.com/amyvernon• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amyvernon• Facebook: http://facebook.com/amyvernon