Ever feel you are living in a fish tank. Everyone has a view of you, all the time? Welcome to the age of social media. I bask in the glory of attending college during the vintage period where cell phones and MySpace were things of the future. The reality is that today, all eyes are on you!
College graduates should pay attention to this article, but it truly applies to anyone, from any genre. What you post and how you post it is visible by anyone who cares to pay attention. Let me lay out a scenario. You are at a “gathering” on campus. You sit in the corner with your good grades, angelic reputation and internship interviews lined up for summer. In one brief moment, a friend of yours comes around with three others they recently met and jump on the sofa, beers in hand, joint in mouth, and a photobomb of a less than decent sort. All of sound, WHAMMO! The bright light of flash presents and in a blink of an eye the circus is gone.
Fast forward to the next week, sitting outside of the Career Services Office for your final round of internship interviews. As you wait, you scroll on your Facebook feed and you see it. The picture. From the party. Oh my it is public! You think to yourself, there is no way the recruiter checks out my Facebook. Well, think again.
Any forward thinking, rockstar recruitment professional is doing just that. Social Media has opened the door to assist recruiters in finding out more about potential candidates than ever before. Gary Vee’s “The Thank You Economy” is a great resource to lay the ground work for understanding your audience, at a much deeper level, before you actually get the chance to meet them. The world has changed. LinkedIn has become your business card and resume. Social has become your voice and how you represent to the masses. How does your’s represent you? Here are some ideas for college grads about to hit the job market:
- Get your LI Profile done first. If you head over to my FB group, @thecareerdojo, and join my Closed LI Group, I have some fantastic ideas for you. This is your business card. Your profile plays an important role in your career search. Your picture should be both professional and engaging and your banner should represent something about you that connects.
- Connect! Connect! Connect! Use the tools you have to make connections with those you wish to work. Research the industries you are interested in and find people to connect with in groups or by profile. In the last 20 years of my career, I filled out the application after I was offered the job. Getting out and taking control over your job search widens your connection pool, but also gets you noticed by those companies and industries you wish to incorporate in your career search.
- The resume. Notice this is the last on my list. Your resume, although a great litany of your experience, is the last to consider. Remember that all ATSs reformat your text. When you apply, a rockstar recruiter is going to look you up on LI first, before they even view your resume. The content is the most important. If you are paying a resume writing service to assist in this arena, make sure they are spending time with you to develop the content that brings out the best version of yourself for the career path you want, not the fonts or the design.
These are the top three considerations to focus on as you move into the final months before graduation. Over arching all of these, clean up your social.