Social Media and Employment

Social networking becomes ever more important as the years go on when it comes to employment and careers.

Dependent upon how you use them, social networking sites can help you a great deal in your professional life.
Of course, they can also work against you if you aren't careful.

Firstly, they can help you get a job. LinkedIn in particular is a great platform for making professional connections. It acts as an online CV so if it looks polished and is kept up-to-date, you could see job offers coming in!

Potential employees' social networking sites are often looked at by companies in the recruitment process. Even though that tweet about what a twonk your old boss was got you five retweets, and you Facebook profile photo which shows you smoking a joint got 30 likes, it won't look good to a company. Clean up your profiles!

Once you've got a job of course, social media is great for it's primary purpose (who knew?!) i.e socialising. Use it to build a better relationship with collegues. But keep it professional and make sure you've said more than just "hello" to them before requesting their friendship on Facebook.

If you've got an interview, check out the company's social media pages, see what's been going on in the last six months. Since they're easy to edit, networking sites (if managed properly) are kept up-to-date. If the company doesn't have any kind of social media presence (or uses just one or two sites) it's worth considering why that might be.

Make connections for the future with LinkedIn. Connect with people in places of authority and who can potentially employ you.

LinkedIn also allows it's members to endorse, reccomend and commend each other. Good relationship with your A Level IT Teacher? Connect with them! They're likely to write on your profile just how great you were at sixthform/college which will go a long way with employers.

Twitter is dangerous- be mindful. If you use Twitter a lot, as I do, you're liable to tweet things you'll regret in the future when you're angry, upset or excited. You needn't use Twitter for your professional life if you'd prefer it for personal use, but keep it PG, PC or just P (protected so that no one can see your tweets or follow you without your permission)

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