Social media can both advance and hinder your career depending on how you use it. Most of the recruiters admit that they look at candidates’ social media profiles before making their decision. Therefore, you have to be careful about how you use social media and who can see your posts. You probably don’t want to provide an unprofessional image to your future employers. Below you can find the most common mistakes that candidates make about social media during their job search.
- Posting Inappropriate Photos: Everybody has a life outside of work but photos of partying, nudity or holding firearms can hurt your professional image. Make sure your pictures are private. Recruiters do not need to know your social life.
- Making Discriminatory Comments: Posting discriminatory comments, videos or pictures to your social media profile is definitely a red flag for many employers. Most companies have a diverse work policy so they will not want to hire anyone who doesn’t share this view.
- Criticizing Your Current Employer: Posting negative comments about your boss or your employer is a big mistake. Your future employer will think that if you post negative opinions about your current employer, then you can post similar comments about another employer in the future as well.
- Using Social Media During Work Hours: Posting tweets, videos or pictures during work hours may raise a red flag for your future employer. This shows that you are wasting the time you need to work, on social media. It is ok to post 2-3 comments during a week but still, be careful about what you are posting.
- Not having any Social Media Accounts: Just like using social media too much is a red flag, not having any social media accounts is not acceptable as well. Maybe you don’t like to share your private life via social media but at least you can have an active LinkedIn account. In this way, you can connect, network and share your work with other professionals in your field.
- Sending a Request to Your Interviewers: This happens very often but it is recommended not doing it. Your interviewers may be very friendly to you but this doesn’t mean that they want to be friends with you. There is no need to cross unwritten boundaries and prevent your chance of getting the offer.
- Posting Comments about Your Recent Interview: You may be excited and happy that you had a great interview. However, don’t assume that you got the job right away and keep your comments to yourself. There are other candidates they need to think about as well so let them make a decision first.
