Can Your Social Media Profile Affect Your Job Prospects?
We live in an age of digital records permanently diarising our lives, and we are ourselves complicit in that process. Our identities are emblazoned in pixels and bytes, producing profiles for all to see. Mothers should tell their children that, “Facebook is forever!” It is a digital tattoo of everything that you may have once thought hilarious to share online with friends and…. (wait for it) strangers. Your prospective employers will scan your social media profiles; this is now de rigour for those trained in human resources. Corporations want to know who they are investing in and whether they have any stains on their character.
Can Your Social Media Profile Affect Your Job Prospects?
Of course it can and does every single minute of every single day. As the HR person weighs up the pros and cons of all the candidates before her or him, who are they going to choose, the crazy pisshead or the cleanskin? What do you think? It is all about risk management inside the company. If they could employ robots that worked 24/7 they would if the price was right. Robots are just currently too expensive in many fields, but the self-scanning aisles at the supermarket should give you some idea of the future ahead.
Remember strangers do not know the real you, so, they cannot balance out your behaviour highs and lows like intimate friends can. Facebook is a book of pictures, a digital photo album with annotated text, short videos and such; but most importantly it is open to the world at large in most instances. It is an invitation to strangers to come and peer into snapshots of your life. Everything you write, say and show goes on public trial. Sydney employers will be sifting through your posts and pages in judgement upon your character.
Can your social media profile affect your job prospects? You better believe it baby! Think about the stilted conversations you have with your employers when you first meet them. They do not really know you from a bar of soap, but they hope that you are squeaky clean. Foul Twitters from you, what kind of impression does that give? Obscene Instagrams and dirty blogs, are these the signs of an exemplary employee? They do not think so. Psychologists refer to your ‘shadow side’ because it is meant to remain in the shadows, not dance a jig centre stage. Flashing a brown eye in public is not an endearing habit in the eyes of those who seek to judge you. Remember what your mother should have told you – Facebook is forever, you dolt!