Online personas have reshaped every aspect of modern life, including professional identities and job searches. Social media gives an employer a window into an applicant’s activities outside of a business setting, and is increasingly being used as a screening tool.

Blake Muse, mass communication junior, experienced this first hand when applying at an advertisement agency.

“During my interview we began having a conversation,” Muse said. “In the middle of us talking, the interviewer got on Facebook and went through about the first 10 posts of my timeline. I didn’t expect it at all.”

Muse said he luckily only posts positive things, such as pictures with his family and the scholarships he has earned.

“She did say that she was impressed with me, and I’m taking it as a learning experience,” Muse said. “If we’ve learned anything from the student government candidate situation, it’s that your posts can follow you. From an advertiser’s perspective, we are our own product.”

Lori Arnold, professional counselor at the Counseling Center, advises students to not assume the reaction of anyone looking at their online profile.

“A student or recent graduate seeking a job has to be careful,” Arnold said. “It’s common now for employers to look up a potential employee before even meeting them. I don’t know if that’s fair, or even the right thing to do, but that’s the situation we live in. Drinking, partying, drug use, profanity, and provocative content are all things I would think about before posting. It’s important to see your profile from a future employer’s perspective.”

While still practicing caution, Arnold said the history of a student’s online persona does not have to necessarily be as professional as a resume.

“It’s a very tricky subject to navigate,” Arnold said. “I’m all for expressing yourself, though I think you need to have a balance, like a censored version of yourself. Eventually everyone comes to the point where they have to decide if the right to be yourself is more important than what is needed when seeking employment.”

Blocking an employer or anyone in a position of authority is rarely the smartest idea, and Arnold said friending them beforehand may be a good thing if you’re comfortable with the material they will be seeing.

“Friending a company or employer that is showing an interest in you can work to your advantage, as long as the content is appropriate,” Arnold said. “It should be noted though that you can’t control other people’s actions, and you can’t control them tagging you in their photos. The decision to add them should take all these factors into account.”

Abigail Scott, director of creative marketing at Homewell Senior Care and MSU graduate, said social media censorship wasn’t as much of a concern when she graduated in 2010, but was on her mind when she got her master’s degree in 2013.

“It never was really an issue that came up back in 2010,” Scott said. “As I was working towards my master’s though I began actively editing my social media. In that time it had become an important thing to keep in mind.”

When looking at a potential employee, Scott said that she occasionally takes their online persona into account depending on what kind of content can be seen.

“A person’s profile is their digital identity, and it can give you a sense of who you’re dealing with,” Scott said. “Choosing a candidate based on race or religion would be a bad practice, but if someone is openly racist or offensive then that’s going to factor into the final decision. An example would be if a person says that they’re tired every day because they’re out drinking every night. Any employer is going to have a predisposition to avoid this kind of behavior.”

Scott said social media can be used as a tool in her field.

“If you were applying for a nonprofit organization and an interviewer sees pictures of you doing volunteer work, that’s going to help your case,” Scott said. “So many of the local news stations even link stories to their media accounts, and if you’re looking for a job in that field then showing an active social media life would be appealing to those groups.”

Joshua Stepney, music senior, said editing his posts has caused him to be less active on those sites.

“These days I update my accounts about twice every day,” Stepney said. “I have to carefully look over every status, because all it takes is that one night of fun, and whether through you or the people you’re friends with, something negative will get out. Before college I never really monitored my social media, until I got a job and money was involved.”

Chase Robertson, history senior, said he censors his posts for more reasons than just employment.

“I usually refrain from using profane language or anything like that, because I don’t want that to end up on the internet,” Robertson said. “I have my family added on most of my accounts so for me it’s an image thing. College and the upcoming job search have definitely made me even more cautious though.”

 Do:

• Share and retweet content that your target industry will find useful
• Engage both current and future peers and other individuals that are in the same field
• Share accomplishments such as scholarships and certifications to promote yourself
• Keep your account’s contact and personal information up to date for employers
• Be consistent with every social media account you have and make sure they all have the same information

Don’t:

• Overshare personal information and clog up the newsfeeds of potential employers
• Add individuals who cannot be trusted with your professional life
• Forget to proofread any text that you make public for errors
• Block potential employers unless your target field requires secrecy
• Forget that different people have different senses of humor, and you can’t always predict what will be funny and what will be distasteful

RELATED

Networking: If you’re not doing it, you should be

Google Scholar links:

• The benefits of Facebook.
• A privacy paradox.
• Pharmacy students’ Facebook activity.
• The use of social networking websites as a recruiting tool for employers.
• Can you see me now?

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