Do you share too much Online?
Comments(2) Interests: Drinking & getting naked.
Perhaps successful interests (as listed on Facebook) when it comes to attracting a new partner, but less likely to be when you’re applying for a role within a professional leadership organisation as was the case with the above.
With interviewers increasingly turning Internet detective to find out what jobseekers say about themselves on social networking websites, it’s more important than ever to consider what your social profile looks like.
To emphasize the point let’s look at the lessons learnt from the recent run of horror stories:
- Cisco Fatty. Lesson: Criticizing your current (or indeed your previous or future) boss or company is unlikely to be a good idea but is likely to come back to bite you.
- Sickie Email (or more recently Swiss Sacking). Lesson: Your social network is likely to be more visible than you realise. Whilst boring its well worth managing your public settings and thinking about who you’re connected to and why. Also don’t be plain stupid (as in the case of Sickie Email).
- Oxford students. Lesson: Incriminating pictures have the shelf life of nuclear waste.
- VP of PR. Lesson: Think before you post.
- Interests Drinking & Getting Naked*. Lesson: Listing details of your very personal interests or romantic life is rarely a good idea.
Despite the horror stories above I firmly believe that Social Networks are (and will be) a vital tool for jobseekers (indeed it’s one of the reasons we created Zookel). Like any new technology however we sometimes need to step back and learn the rules and our personal parameters in order to gain the greatest benefit.
As always good luck with the job hunt, and please feel free to drop us a note if we can help.
Paul & Team Zookel
*Note – no link provided to Interests Drinking & Getting Naked as this story was shared in confidence.