How social media can help or hurt you in your job search

LinkedIn is ideal for building a professional network and giving prospective employers a good view of who you are and is a popular medium for recruiting people. However, have you considered your other social media pages when it comes to job hunting?

Whether you’re looking for a part-time job, internship or a graduate role, social media can have a key part to play.

Twitter

Twitter can be a perfect tool to get in contact with organisations. Following a company that you want to work for will keep you up-to-date with company news which could give you an advantage at interview and help you understand the company’s values and brand, plus make sure you see the most recent job vacancies and recruitment dates. You can use it to get in touch with employers too but be careful to remain polite.

You can search for job vacancies on Twitter by searching for key words and hashtags, for example searching for #vacancy or #jobsearch will give you a huge list of tweeted vacancies available all over the world. You could also try tweeting to help employers find you; for example ‘Can anyone suggest a company looking for legal interns? #internship #legal internship #lawgrad #law Thanks!’

Don’t forget that this might lead to employers looking at your profile, so try to choose a sensible username and image. Think twice about what you are tweeting and watch out for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors too. Use the opportunity to present yourself as a suitable candidate.

Employers have been known to check your Twitter after an interview to see if you have tweeted about the interaction so avoid writing anything negative about them or yourself.

Facebook

Facebook is not really known as a professional network website but many companies and employees are also active on this platform. You could sign up to groups or company pages to help you keep up-to-date with company news and many companies post their job vacancies on Facebook too.

You can post a message on your wall to say you are job hunting – someone in your network might be able to help.

Don’t forget that Facebook isn’t just useful to you – it’s the ideal place for recruiters to check on candidates. Keep in mind your profile security settings as everything they can see on your Facebook profile could affect whether you get invited to a job interview or not.

Don’t think solely in terms of hiding or removing inappropriate content – you can also use Facebook to your advantage. Your Facebook page will hopefully give the employer a good feel for your personality; for example, does your profile show off your interests, skills and experience?

Consider, does the information on your profile conflict with what you are telling employers?

Check out our online information for more ways to research employers: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/careers/find-and-apply/researching-employers/