A New Standard for Job Seeking
What has your experience been regarding the influence of the web and social networks relative to employers’ decision-making processes for sourcing, recruiting, and hiring? What are you learning from employers in your area?
Larger corporate companies have definitely utilized this in our area, but smaller companies have not responded to using social media to check on applicants.
Hi Kristine,
Have the employers you speak with elaborated on what exactly they are looking for? I find that for the students who are aware that employers are reviewing profiles, they have the perception that employers are looking merely for "knock-out" factors such as offensive comments, distasteful images, or other sings of irresponsible behavior/character. However, beyond the obvious "knock-out" factors, I have found that employers are also looking for signals of fit with organizational culture and a candidate's brand consistency to see that the way they present themselves online is consistent with their face-to-face presentation and interview. Have your employers elaborated on any specifics that align with these observations? Any others?
Robert Starks Jr.
I'm learning employers regularly use social media to learn more about the people who apply for positions in their companies. I'm also learning to advise students to clean up their postings and remarks rather than risking getting turned down for a position they may have thrived in. Employers tell me they are regularly utilizing Linkedin and recommend everyone have a profile.
Hi Viola,
It's great that you still teach students the importance of remaining current. Engaging in LinkedIn groups definitely helps with professional development, not just job search. They can learn from others with similar interests through dialogue and sharing resources. It's important students understand how to use online communities to build their own personal learning networks (PLNs).
Robert Starks Jr.
Being in a more rural area, we are not seeing as much of the web playing an integral role in the students job search. We still work with employers who use faxes and don't have websites.
However we do advise our students to embrace this trend and to be up to date rather than lagging behind. I encourage them to create a LinkedIn profile and to join LinkedIn groups. I think networking this way will be very helpful to them as the internet becomes more popular in our area.
We've asked employers about whether or not they advertise on social media for applicants, but I don't believe we've asked them how they use social media as a recruitment tool. That is definitely something we will probably add to the employer survey we use.
Hi Vanessa,
Do your students include URLs to a unified web presence such as LinkedIn or About.me on their resumes? If they include any URLs on their resume, perhaps you could start asking employers if they look at these profiles when considering a candidate. If you haven't asked employers specifically how they use social media (the answer may be that they don't), this might be good to get their feedback. Although your employers may not be directly advertising on social media for jobs, I am wondering what part of their recruiting process it may influence. They may not even be thinking of it in terms of their recruiting process but if they use it to do soft background checks or only for finalist candidates, this is still part of the recruiting funnel. I am wondering if they use it in these ways or if it truly is not at all.
Robert Starks Jr.
To be honest, We've not seen an uptick in particular employers using social media to recruit. But we have had employers tell us that hey use job boards to advertise and would be open to researching candidates via social media.
I think that social media will become more prevalent in the recruiting process as more employers begin to utilize it as such a tool.
Hi Amber,
Thanks for sharing this excellent feedback directly from the field. You're right, the content we publish on open sites like Facebook is indexed by Google, permanent, and searchable. Employers can use that data in decision-making for hiring decisions. Today's employers want to hire individuals whose personal brands align with the brand of the company because their employees represent them. Content from students published on social media sites that suggests an individual has values, behaviors, or qualities that do not align with company expectations help employers to make the decision not to hire them. Students need to be thoroughly educated on this and must see social media as an opportunity (if managed) to develop strong personal brands that can help their professional image.
Robert Starks Jr.
We have a very similar setting here in that regard. We have had guests speakers as well as ourselves speak about branding amongst the current students.
There have been several incidents with students where administration has been able to point out inappropriate information relayed primarily through Facebook, and we have had incidences where employers have not hired graduates entirely based on Facebook.
Most of the time the employers in our area are looking at the interests, and because our field is a very trust oriented field anything regarding violence, sexual images, drug abuse, as well as a blatant disregard for others (for example: cursing at family, friends or old employers) can be means for not hiring the individual.
We had one of the education coordinators from a local hospital speak to our students about professionalism. She discussed with our students their presence on social media and why they need to think about what they are putting online. Our students are starting to learn why it is so important not to share their latest tattoo or complain about their former employers.Our local employers are starting to look more into the student's online presence.
