Cleaning Up Your Social Media Profile Before The Next Job Interview
By Cham Posted Date: September 19, 2016
After sending out hundreds of job applications and long period of silence and no replies, you finally land a job interview! Great news, this employer could be the one who is ready to offer you your next job. So what are the things you can do to position yourself better so you land the job and get the offer? One is obviously interview preparation, it is a key aspect to interview success and it almost always come down to how much you have prepared. Although interview prep is very important there are other things to consider too, one that a majority of job seekers fail to look at – which is cleaning up their social media accounts.
Discussed below are some of the things you can do to help clean up that social media profile of yours so you look like a more appealing candidate to the hiring manager.
- Deleting some photos: Getting rid of some of those old questionable photos from your drunken college adventures is the first step. Having pictures of friends and family as well as good head shots of yourself are ok, but that controversial picture of a moment you can barely recollect needs to go. Photos that depict drinking, illegal activity or anything too sexual won’t be appreciated by employees.
- Untag yourself in other photos: In some cases the worst pictures of you may not always be the ones you post yourself. Your friends may have posted some embarrassing ones of you that’s probably best left unseen. Untag yourself in these pictures and if necessary ask your friend to actually take it down.
- Use a more professional photo as your profile picture: The first thing any one looks at on your social media page will be your profile picture. If you have a professional picture (a headshot) then use that as your profile picture, this gives the employer the signal that you may be a professional candidate.
- Update your personal info on Facebook: Information such as your ‘About Me’ section and/or ‘Favourite Quotes’ are probably going to need updating from the silly things you’d written as a teenager. Instead present here a more accurate description of who you are to the employer.
- Update your LinkedIn: Being the most popular professional social media platform, LinkedIn will be one of the most referenced websites when it comes to selecting a viable candidate for the job. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date because there is no doubt that your potential employer will check out the profile at some point during the selection process.