Tag Archives: social media presence

By now, everyone has heard the cautionary tale of the NASA intern who was fired because of two profane tweets. Homer Hickam, a former NASA engineer, had tweeted a warning to the now-former intern about her language use, but she was unaware of his identity and used profanity in her reply to him. While the story was certainly cringe-inducing, many people may think the same situation may never happen to them. But chances are, employers will look at your social media. You just won’t be lucky enough to get a warning.

Social media is fun and engaging, and many of us have the habit of posting anything and everything we do. But more employers use social media in the hiring process than ever before. A 2017 survey by Harris Poll found that 70 percent of employers used social media to screen candidates.

This is both your greatest advantage and disadvantage.

This doesn’t mean you should delete your accounts. …

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According to Online Colleges Columnist Michael Lemaire, 37% employers use social media to research job candidates. Let that sink in. I’m talking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites such as the popular Pinterest or even YouTube. Why should this scare you a little? Well, hiring managers say they’re using social media to discover more than what is usually revealed during a traditional interview.

Allow me to attest for the majority of college students out there regarding Facebook and Twitter—employers, on many occasions, will be seeing the things potential employees actually try to hide in interviews. Even more serious for us students—65% of employers use social media sites to see if the candidate presents himself/herself professionally. Professionally? This calls for some editing.

However, this study also reports that 79% of college students are likely conformable with their online profiles being reviewed because they’ve cleaned up their pages and created …

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