The Best Guide to Facebook Usage during a Job Search for Every Student

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

It’s no secret that social media is deeply rooted in every aspect of our lives by now. Almost everybody that has access to it no matter the age, nationality, or social status posts a big section of their lives on social platforms.

The usage of social media revolutionized job searching and checking of prospective candidates by companies as well. This is the main reason that you should be very careful when you’re searching for a job and using your social media accounts at the same time because the chances are your potential employer will check your digital identity before you get accepted.

There have been plenty of people that didn’t fit into the job positions they wanted just because they had offensive or distasteful content posted online. There is an even bigger number of employees that got fired over something that they posted on social platforms.

Facebook is probably one of the most used social media and plays a huge role in rating the potential employees. According to Facebook, on average 1.49 billion daily active users shared their private information with people in September 2018. The likelihood that you’re one of them is extremely high, so pay attention to the following tips regarding your behavior as a student when you’re applying for jobs.

1. Be careful what you post

This one is pretty straight-forward. Not everything that you think or do has to be posted online, especially when you’re trying to penetrate the job market and stand out with your professional abilities. Before you write that comment or post that meme, make sure that you think about how that would look in the eyes of the people that want to employ you.

When you start looking for a job, go over your Facebook profile as back as the beginning. We all post inappropriate things at times especially when we were younger, so going back and deleting some things can be a very helpful thing for your future.

2. Adjust your privacy settings

Facebook values their privacy, especially in the last few years. The company has almost everything figured out, and you can protect almost everything from the people that are not your friends on social media. For instance, a lot of companies perform drug tests to make sure that their employees will have good motor skills where they are necessary, and your friend tagging you on a picture where alcohol and weed are caught in the frame is a bad situation.

If you have some content that you don’t want to delete, but it’s also inappropriate for potential employers to see, some options will allow you to keep the content without it causing damage to your professional image. You can do the following things:

Change your default sharing setting to Friends
Review apps and sharing permissions
Make your political and religious views are only visible to your Friends
Review things you’ve been tagged in and ask to review future tags
Review the pages your like

3. Don’t accept everybody on Facebook

Having your boss on Facebook and all of your colleagues might be a little bit inappropriate, and it will surely limit your ability to express yourself freely on your profile. Having your professional relationships on LinkedIn is enough, save your Facebook profile for your dear friends and family members. You must put some limits as to what is an acceptable behavior for you when it comes to social media.

4. Don’t complain publicly about your job/company

Although everybody is entitled to their opinion and you do have the right to ask for better conditions at your working place, posting it on Facebook where everybody can publicly see it can be considered to be bad publicity and might be in violation of the laws and terms of your employment. For these purposes, there are H&R departments, labor unions, and other options where your opinion will be heard and valued. This way, you will also keep your professional image for the future jobs you might take on.

5. Post the right things

Don’t only focus on the things that you shouldn’t do, but also on the things that you should do. This goes both ways since potential employers do not only visit Facebook profiles to dig up dirt on their potential employees, but they are also paying attention to things that might put you in an advantage. So, if you decide to share things publicly, make sure that they are related to the profession you’re in and that they challenge your views and potentials. Being completely silent of invisible on social media can be a serious disadvantage in this way.

If you pay attention to these things and put some effort into cleaning your Facebook profile once, you will have far better chances of landing that dream job of yours in the future.

Mary Walton is a professional editor, content strategist and a part of NCSM team. Apart from writing, Mary is passionate about hiking and gaming. Feel free to contact her via Facebook.

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The Best Guide to Facebook Usage during a Job Search for Every Student

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