Posted on 23 Nov, 2018

In the digital age, your first impression is made long before you enter the interview room.

The first seven seconds of a meeting used to be seen as the crucial window to make an impression. While seven seconds might seem an impossibly tiny window (and some research suggests even this is too long), you can make an impression long before the interview, and use this to clinch the job you want.

How? By getting your social media profile perfect.

Clean Up Your Social Media CV

92% of companies use social media for recruiting, and those numbers are only climbing. Looking up a candidate online is now a common step in the recruitment process, and recruiters can use any information they find about you online as grounds to cast your application aside.

Dodge the cull by avoiding unprofessional images, aggressive or offensive language and emotional outbursts. Imagine you're an employer and remove anything that would be off-putting. If in doubt, consider if your content could be taken out of context and always err on the side of caution.

With such high stakes, it may be tempting to wipe clean your social media and avoid posting at all. This certainly avoids any unpleasant content being unearthed, but having no social media footprint can seem suspicious as well as preventing you from accessing the wealth of advantages that social media can lend to your job search.

Showcase Your Skills Online

The potential benefits of social media are especially high in the design field and other creative industries as they can serve as a portfolio for your creativity and passion. Whether it's tweeting about a recent design trend or posting photographs of inspirational architecture, you should harness social media to show off your best self and get employers excited about the kind of person you are and what you have to offer.

Additionally, designers should ensure their social media doesn't make any design mistakes like having poor quality or awkward looking profile pictures.

Once your profile is spot on, you can use social media to your advantage in job hunting. Follow companies and clients you would like to work with on their main social platforms and engage with them. This will give you priceless insight into their company culture and values, and especially with smaller companies or individuals, is guaranteed to get you noticed.

With social media, you have the opportunity to identify and speak to the hiring manager to make sure your application stands out. You can also investigate other employees to get a feel for what skills are important and what the day to day activities are.

Social media also makes your network more visible, so you may be surprised to find you have friends or old colleagues that are already in a company you're applying to and may be willing to give you a valuable referral.

The job market is always changing, so it's essential to adapt. By using social media effectively, you can stand out, streamline your job hunt and make a great impression.

Posted in: Job Hunting | Tagged: job hunting social media