Check this:
- 57 percent of employers are less likely to interview a candidate they can’t find online.
- 54 percent have decided not to hire a candidate based on their social media profiles.
- Half of the employers check current employees’ social media profiles.
- Over a third have reprimanded or fired an employee for inappropriate content.
- 70 percent of employers use social media to screen candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006.
Wow.
If you still needed proof that who you are in the virtual world has repercussions in real life, this is it.
Add to that the chilling fact that your data might be stolen, sold, and used to influence who is president, and you begin to understand why some feel a campaign under the hashtag #deletefacebook is just what is needed.
And in the world of hiring, it definitely goes both ways. Before an interview, oodles of candidates google a hiring manager to see if they want to work for him/her.
So, giving your online image some thought seems in order.
What’s in a personal brand?
Back in the “stone age,” when some of us were interviewing for jobs, your “brand” was defined by how well you did in an interview, what employees you knew had to say about you, and what your references shared.
Today there is Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp (all, in fact, the same company), Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter…
Facebook since last year even offers its own job marketplace, promising to “take the work out of hiring.” These new features that allow job posting and application directly on Facebook were introduced last year in the US and, in early 2018, rolled out in another 40 countries – with more to come.
That potentially means that employers do not have to surf the far reaches of the net any longer to find out things about a candidate-about you. They will have it all in one place. Isn’t that great?
In that case, maybe it´s time to revisit and objectively reconsider your online persona.
Today, digital literacy is an indispensable skill
If I could only give you one tip, this would be it: Separate personal and professional spheres. Make sure your private social media profiles are visible only to your circle of friends.
However, this sounds more straightforward than it is.
If you are in the process of applying for a job, you may want to deliberately disclose certain highlights from your resume. For example, that you are running a blog, that you won that prestigious award, or that you are doing charity work. You may want to make things like that publicly visible, thus boosting your online reputation/personal brand.
In case you are friends with your boss or colleagues on Facebook, did you know that you can create different groups of people? That way you can always determine whether a post is visible to everyone or just for your friends.
And while I have faith that most of you reading this use common sense when it comes to what you post, can you trust that your college friends, golfing buddies, and neighbors have the same concern for your personal brand as you? If you don’t have plans for Memorial Day, maybe spend a lazy morning untagging those less than flattering posts/photos that your friends have helpfully shared with the world!
And, finally, always remember that a picture says more than a thousand words. The snapshot of you and your new bikini on the beach or the selfie of you chugging that pitcher at the last party will be remembered instead of all the great charity work you’ve posted about. Always work with pictures that cannot be used against you.
“Unmanned” is still human
Almost by definition most of us already working or interested in the unmanned and robotics industry are technophiles.
As such you may find the pointers above to be self-evident old news. But in my experience, many of us are so used to embracing digital tools that we tend to fall into the data trap.
So, it pays to remember that that´s precisely what they are: tools, not the solutions themselves.
When it comes to social media and my own observations, this reminder is important! In your job hunt or search for candidates, before you hand over your data to the algorithms of Silicon Valley, give me a call and speak to a person.
Because “unmanned is anything but”!
