The Undercover Recruiter

How to Prepare Your Social Media for a Job Search

If you are ready to begin the search for a great job, chances are you have a lot on your mind! You have to get your resume up to date and impressive, create the perfect cover letter, find out who is hiring and prepare for those tough interview questions.

Even though you’ve got a lot on your plate, don’t overlook management of your social media accounts. More and more potential employers are turning to social networks to check up on prospective employees, and what you’ve got online could determine whether or not you land the job!

Know where you can be found

By: D. Sharon Pruitt

Sure, you have a Facebook account or a LinkedIn profile, but you might not be aware of everywhere you appear online. Maybe you signed up for a dating site a few years back and have forgotten all about it, or maybe a family member uploaded some crazy pictures of you at your last family reunion.

While you certainly need to be concerned about the social networking sites you use on a regular basis, old profiles need to be addressed too. If you can’t remember every site you’ve ever signed up for (and who can?), try doing an online search of your name, any screen names and/or your email address. If you find your name attached to a profile or website that you’ve never heard of, email the webmaster of the site and ask them to remove you.

You can almost bet that your potential employers are going to run a Google search on you, and you don’t want to lose out on an amazing job because you didn’t take the time to make sure there was nothing bad about you online — especially if you didn’t willingly sign up to the site!

Keep pictures G-Rated

By: Richard Stephenson

When you upload a picture online, you are sending a message about who you are. Even if you delete that picture, it may have been saved by countless others, circulating the Internet unbeknownst to you. This is why you should always be careful about the pictures that you post, even if you’re celebrating because you’ve recently graduated from college.

Avoid posting pictures in which you are scantily clad, obviously drinking alcohol or engaging in any illegal activities, and any pictures that you wouldn’t want your future boss to see — because chances are he or she will.

Facebook has a tendency to change their privacy settings quite often, and most people don’t care to read the latest updates. The next time you log onto your Facebook page take a look at your privacy settings and make sure that your settings are private!

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

Chances are you don’t upload photos to Twitter like you do on Facebook, but you do have to watch what you say. Unlike Facebook, if your Twitter account is public anyone and everyone can see your tweets, regardless of whether or not they have their own account.

If a potential employer sees you tweeted something inappropriate, illegal, politically incorrect, or anything else that could be deemed offensive they may not hire you. For example, if you’re a recent college grad who is applying for jobs, a potential employer isn’t going to be too pleased when they see a tweet where you talk about how you cheated your way through your Philosophy class, or how you “embellished” your resume a bit.

Even if your Twitter account is protected, that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Many employers will request to follow potential employees on Twitter. Sure you’re free to deny their request, but that doesn’t send them the best impression of you!

Don’t insults/diss past employers

If you’ve ever been unfairly fired or just had a bad employment experience, it can feel very good to vent your feelings on your blog or through some other social media platform. However, potential employers are sure to find these kinds of tirades and it can make them worry that you’d do the same thing to them. Vent to a trusted friend (in private) instead.

If you’re filling out a profile on a job search website and you’re trying to explain why you were “let go” from a previous position, be extremely careful not to sound angry or bitter toward the company, even if they did wrong you. Keep your explanations vague and political. Saying “The position was not the right fit for my personality” sounds much better than saying “My boss and I could never see eye to eye.”

If all else fails…

If the temptation to post pictures of yourself partying or to blog about how awful your last job was is too great to resist, then at least take control of your online escapades by keeping them anonymous.

Use a separate email address or screen name for personal online activity and don’t mix it with your work name or email. Remember, though, that it’s best to resist if you can, because today’s savvy employers often have a way of finding what you don’t want them to find.

photo by: Jerry Bunkers

Michael C Deaven

Michael is a full-time blogger who has passions in all corners of the online world. In his down time he enjoys being outdoors, traveling, and blogging on everything from technology, to business, to marketing, and beyond.

Filed Under: Etiquette, Facebook, Graduate, Hiring, Job Search, Personal Branding, Privacy, Reputation, Twitter Tagged With: Career Advice, Facebook, Guest Post, Hiring, Personal Branding, Social Media, Twitter

How To Clean Up Your Facebook Profile for College Admission

Many experts warn new college graduates about the harm a Facebook profile could have on employment opportunities—too many inappropriate photos or statues, especially any defaming your employer, and you could definitely get your resume thrown in the trash or get fired. But what many high school graduates aren’t aware of is that their Facebook profile can actually hinder their chances of getting into the college of their choice. Just how employers use social media sites to determine whether an applicant looks promising, college admission officers and recruiters use the social networking site in a similar fashion.

In fact, about 24% of college admission officers admit to tracking applicants on various social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Google, to check an applicant’s digital trail, according to a 2011 Kaplan Test Prep survey. And those that snooped typically found something that hindered the applicant’s chances of acceptance, including photos of alcohol and drug abuse, vulgarity, and evidence of a plagiarized admission’s essay.

How Many Admission Officers Do This?

The number of college admission officers who check an applicant’s digital trail may be small and hasn’t grown much since 2008 reports say, but with more and more colleges using social media as a recruitment tool, that number may increase. Another 2011 survey even showed that 80% of its pool of 150 surveyed schools use social media for recruitment. That said, social media is definitely a front runner in marketing and recruitment realm for colleges. So if you’re planning on returning to school to pursue a master’s degree or higher, beware!

How to Safeguard your Facebook Profile from Prying Eyes?

Does that mean you should delete your entire Facebook page altogether? Not necessarily. College admissions officers are extremely busy and don’t really have the time to visit all of their applicants’ profiles. But if they are on the fence about you—they want to really verify that you are a member of a certain organization for example or you may be one of two finalists and they want to get a better idea of who you are—don’t hold checking your Facebook account against them . Thus, it’s important to clean up your digital trail and delete any incriminating information or photos. Here are some tips on how to do that:

Set Your Profile to Private. This is an automatic given. Click on the arrow tab near “home” at the top of the page>scroll down to privacy settings>control your default settings>switch from “public” to “friends”—this will only allow the people you “friend” to view your page. Or you can click on custom and specify your restrictions even further—for example, you can type in The University of Mexico so no one affiliated with the school will be able to see your profile.
Delete Unnecessary Apps. Don’t think that simply putting your account to private is enough. Many colleges have a way of getting around this. One of the more popular options is making those interested go through a Facebook app in order to ask questions or get more information. If you read the fine print, terms and conditions will tell you that the app will have access to certain features on your Facebook, such as photo albums. If you add a school-affiliated app, make sure to delete it as soon as it’s served its purposes. On the left tool bar, scroll down to Apps and Games>click the pencil icon next to the app you want to remove>click remove.
Set Albums to Private. If you know you tend to post inappropriate and incrementing photos, it would be a good idea to set those albums to restrict view or simply delete them entirely.
Restrict Tagging. You can’t control which photos your friends want to post on your Timeline, but you can control which ones actually get a comfy (and permanent) spot on your page. Under the Privacy Settings go to Timeline and Tagging>Edit Settings>Review Posts Friends Tag You in Before They Appear on Your Timeline>On. This will help control any inappropriate photo-tagging mix ups.
Stop Uploading Albums. While restricting albums and restricting tags can help, the truth is that every photo you upload can be uncovered in some form or fashion. Thus, you might want to refrain from using Facebook as a way to store all of your photos. Instead, use other sources as SnapFish and DropBox to upload all of your backup photos. Worried that people won’t be able to see them? Trust us when we say your friends don’t really care to see your photos from your two week vacation in Hawaii as might as you think they do. Keep the photos as memories, but you don’t have to share your memories with everyone.
Restrict Public Search. Last but not least, you want to make sure that you make it difficult for people to find you on the social media site. After all, the harder it is to locate your profile the less chances an admission officer has of finding anything to hinder your acceptance. To do this go to Privacy Settings>Apps, Games, Website>Public Search>Edit Settings> Disable Public Search.

That said, while your social media account shouldn’t play that big of a role in determining whether you get accepted into you school-of-choice or not, the fact that it’s a possibility should motivate you enough to make it presentable.

This guest post is contributed by Barbara Jolie, who writes for the Online Classes blog. Barbara Jolie is an avid writer and blogger, interested in all things education. For questions or comments email her at barbara.jolie876 at gmail.com.

photo by: megan leetz

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Facebook, Graduate, Privacy Tagged With: Admission, college

How Unsafe is Your LinkedIn Password? [INFOGRAPHIC]

You will not have missed the story about LinkedIn and the 6.46 million stolen user passwords. Here is a study done by Rapid 7, looking at the most popular passwords people use on LinkedIn as well as some of the common mistakes made while setting passwords.

Top 5 passwords (avoid these at all cost):

link
1234
work
god
12345

Common password mistakes by users:

Not watching your language: foul passwords are weak and can be embarrassing when disclosed!
Bad relationship: using a password related to the site (such as ‘link’ in this case).
Religion: typical passwords will be ‘god’, ‘angel’ and ‘jesus’ – hackers know this!
Count Dracula (of Sesame St that is): don’t use numbers like ’123456789′!
Size: 3 or 4 letters is way to short and try not to use the word love as a prefix

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Infographic, LinkedIn, Privacy Tagged With: Passwords, Security

What if an Employer Requests My Facebook Password?

There have been several stories in the news recently about employers requesting the Facebook passwords of employees and job applicants. Should employers have access to our most private details? What rights do employees have in this situation? Is this even legal?

Why would an employer want my Facebook password?

Employers would probably be hard-pressed to come up with a legitimate business reason for requiring full access to an employee’s private social networking profiles. It seems as though employers are taking advantage of desperate job seekers who would rather surrender their rights to privacy than miss out on a job opportunity.

Should employers have access to my private information?

With today’s technology and increasing connectedness, there is a very fine line between our professional and personal lives. This is why we go through the painstaking process of perfecting our privacy settings on our social networking profiles. We know that current and potential employers are likely to research our online presence, but there is a difference between viewing our publicly available information and having full access to our most personal details.

While it might be uncomfortable to allow an employer to read your private messages and scan through your personal photos, this unrestricted access can actually be harmful for employers as well.

Employers are at risk for discrimination claims if:

- the employer asks some, but not all, individuals for certain information (ie, Facebook passwords),
- the employer discovers bits of personal information (e.g. race, religion, sexual orientation, medical conditions or political views) that are typically made available on protected Facebook profiles or in personal conversations.

What should I expect from an employer regarding social networking privacy?

Some companies that have been pressured to cease requesting employees’ Facebook passwords have resorted to “shoulder surfing,” or having an individual log in to their account and click through messages, photos and wall posts while the employer watches. In some cases, student athletes have been required to “friend” a coach or other authority figure as a means of monitoring activity.

Basic background checks are a standard practice in recruitment, and every company should have a formal social media policy that includes guidelines for conducting social networking screening. Ideally, these checks should be carried out by a third party, and certainly not by the individual in charge of making the hiring decision. All employers should reveal their social media monitoring policy to employees, including the use of software that takes screen snapshots of login information.

Is it legal for an employer to ask for my Facebook password?

There are no specific laws to protect the social networking privacy of employees and job applicants, though lawmakers in some US states have introduced bills to prohibit employers from requesting Facebook passwords. In the UK, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 offers some protection to employees. According to the Act, it is an offence to use a computer to gain access to data you are not authorised to use.

Unfortunately, many employees are willing to fork over their passwords in order to keep their jobs, thus “authorising” the employer to access their personal information. However, this practice still constitutes a direct violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. According to Section 4.8 of Facebook’s policy, “You will not share your password…let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.”

What can I do if I’m asked to give up my password?

Do not be afraid to defend your rights to personal social networking privacy. Ask about the company’s social media policy. Express your concerns about your legal rights, quote Facebook’s official policy, or just say no. If all else fails, ask yourself: do you really want to work for a company that doesn’t respect your right to privacy?

Adriana Costello is an MSc Management and HR student at the London School of Economics. She blogs regularly for Link Humans and Jumpstart:HR as a HR and Social Media Intern. Follow Adriana on Twitter @AdrianaTereza.

photo by: Alessio85

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Employer, Facebook, Privacy Tagged With: Career Advice, Facebook, Privacy