Importance of social media in securing a job

Marcon

Deleted User said:

Likewise I have started a new job when the norm is to have your mobile switched on during work hours for the purpose of what‚Äôs app being used as an office comm tool (old fuddy duddy who was brought up basically at work the mobile should be off unless break time and if you wanted a disciplinary being caught using it during work time, so had a few odd fish looks no doubt!!) why would I want to run my battery down and be left stranded on way home from work potentially with no mobile then to call for help. 

Ever thought of plugging your mobile in and charging it while you're at work?

AJRBADGER

Thank you for the reply guys. 
I was a little taken aback by the feedback tbh, although I should add it was verbal and informal. 
I do wonder if the fact I really do not want to own a smart phone, nor have any sort of online presence will work against me. I'm quite happy with the desk top and logging onto the internet a couple of times a day. I don't want it at my finger tips as I don't think it is a positive thing. 

Thrugelmir

Amazing how stupid some people can be with what they post on social media such as Facebook.  Hardly surprising that prospective employers enquire. Quick and easy way of filtering out people who most certainly won't make good team members. 

bartelbe

To be honest in every job I have ever had they have consider employee social media to be a liability. The thing they wanted was someone working for them posting something that could hurt the company or organisation.

General_Grant

ushjr said:

I reluctantly signed up to LinkedIn maybe 10 years ago, simply listed my job, connected with colleagues and added a photo. I'd log in once a year to find lots of connection requests and messages from recruiters. I did however become more active once I was made redundant and got the job I'm in now via a recruiter finding me on LinkedIn.

I don't think an employer would care if you had a smart phone or not, I don't think I've ever been asked if I own one.

That's because there's a belief about that everyone has a smart phone.

TELLIT01

74jax said:

When I was hiring I would use social media to check out applicants if I was down to maybe 3 and couldn't chose.  It's amazing how many will openly call their company on social media, even post photos on Instagram with the caption 'took a sicki today' and they were out at Alton Towers.................
LinkedIn was always my go to also, however I wouldn't not hire someone because I couldn't find anything on them - good or bad.

There's a big difference between not employing somebody because of the stupid things they have posted e.g. taking a sickie, and not employing somebody because they aren't all over social media.

Sandtree

I think the industries/roles where whats on your social media will actually get you a job (after the point of getting an interview) is very limited. For the majority of roles social media can only cost you your potential job.

Personally, the only social media I have is LinkedIn. I have a fairly large network that is divided into those people I have worked closely with over the 17 years of my professional life and the other half are people that were in recruitment at the point I connected (though some have since moved out of that industry).

I rarely post anything other than liking the occasional ex-colleague's new job message. My profile however is open and I do get approaches from various recruiters as a result of them finding me on LinkedIn... certainly 2 roles I've secured that way. Similarly half my feed comes from recruiters posting roles and these seem more reliable these days than looking on job boards. 

When I am hiring I do tend to look at the candidate's LinkedIn page and see if CV and profile broadly match, see if we have any common connections who I may be able to tap up for an informal conversation etc. Never looked for a Facebook page etc but can see certain HR functions having software that does that sort of thing.

I can understand why having nothing at all would be a warning these days as it could point to someone thats attempted to hide something.  Maybe its time for you to venture into professional social media as if nothing else the network can help.

AskAsk

i don't have any social media presence, or at least not ones that i would own up to!     

i am surprised to hear this as it has never been an issue for me.  some of my colleagues have linkedln profiles but i don't like mass disclosure and prefer to stay private and unknown.  i don't have a facebook account either, which is intentional.

i guess it may depend on the profession.  a lot of professionals are expected to have a linkedln profile but i doubt that would be the decision for not recruiting someone if they don't have one.  if you tell us what your job is, it may help to put things into context.

TBagpuss

I think it depends on the job. If the job is one where you may be expected to contribute to publicity or help managing the employers official social media then it may be relevant as any other skill would be that forms part of your job.
I would however think in most other circumstances it's fairly common for employers to google a candidate to see what sort of social media presence they have, to see whether they are in the habit of making public posts which would be inappropriate or embarrassing if they are linked back to the company.

However, if you've had it mentioned twice it might we worth you setting up a twitter account and perhaps use it to follow and  retweet publications / organisations etc. relevant to your area of work,  - for instance if you were in the medical field you might follow NHS accounts, the BMJ, NewScientist etc., if you were in the legal field, follow the Law Society, SRA and a few leagl bloggers  / journalists, and make sure that you have an up to date LinkedIn account.
 

I don't think you are particularly unusual - I have a facebook account, which I use to keep in touch with friends, and which has the highest available privacy settings, and a photo which isn't of me, so someone googling would not know whether I was the same TBagpuss they were interviewing, and my twitter account doesn't have my full name and isn't obviously linked to my job in any way.

However, I thin k it is relatively unusual and it may cause some employers to wonder whether you are generally less computer literate than other candidates? 

Mickey666

TBagpuss said:

However, I thin k it is relatively unusual and it may cause some employers to wonder whether you are generally less computer literate than other candidates? 

I take your point, but think it would be a big jump to such a conclusion. 
Depends what is meant by 'computer literacy' I guess, though I personally wouldn't say that simply being able to use FB and Twitter is a sign of true computer literacy.  Indeed, true computer literacy, ie a detailed understand of how computer and IT systems actually work, could be a very good reason for NOT using social media.