Is Social Media Hurting Your Job Search?
Don't let Facebook be the reason you don't get a new job
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Odds are good you’re involved with some form of social media. Maybe you spend your free time tweeting on Twitter or perhaps you prefer looking up old friends on Facebook. It’s a great idea to be involved with social media and it may even help you with your job search networking – but beware. There are countless horror stories of people who lost their jobs or lost their chance at a job because of what they said when they thought no one was listening. Here are some rules to follow to make sure that social media doesn’t ruin your job search.
Never trash talk your job or a potential job
It’s an all too common problem. You’re having a bad day at work and just need to blow off some steam but instead of calling a friend to vent, you update your Facebook status to say something snarky about your job. On Twitter, the popular website that allows you to post short text messages, someone types “I hate my job” every five minutes. While telling the world that you dislike your employer may seem harmless, it could end up costing you a job.
A candidate for a job at corporate giant Cisco was trying to decide whether or not she should take the job she’d been offered. Instead of discussing it with friends or family, this person decided to discuss it with the world and posted the dilemma on Twitter.
She said "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Definitely not something any employer wants to hear about a potential employee. Within hours, a person who worked for Cisco found the not-so-polite tweet and responded "Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure
they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."
Whoops.
Take a lesson from this person’s mistake. Never, ever say anything bad about the company you work for, used to work for, or might work for. You never know who might be looking at what you’re saying.
Never curse
It might seem like a silly thing to you, but cursing can be a big deal when you’re looking for a job. If potential employers see that you have a potty mouth they may hold it against you, especially if you’re going to be working around customers or with children. If you wouldn’t say it in front of your whole family (including Grandma) or in a job interview, then don’t broadcast it across the Internet.
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