It is crucial to keep your social media profiles on a short leash when it comes time to start looking for jobs. In this new day and age, employers have started delving into these public profiles of possible candidates in order to get a better perspective on new hires. You could only imagine the damage that could be done to your chances if old pictures or comments are taken in a misconstrued way.
What if employers could see an aggregated report of all your social media presences in one place? Well, according to an article from PCMagazine, technology job site Dice has created such a tool for employers and recruiters called Open Web.
Open Web has the ability to collect a person's public information from "up to 50 different social networks," as stated by Dice. Yes, all of the popular networks are a part of this service. The reason for Dice's decision in creating such a tool is to help employers and recruiters obtain a more personal profile of possible candidates in the technology industry.
With this collaborative information, employers can figure out "how to approach tech professionals on a more personal, direct level." This is all nice and full of candy for tech industry employers since recruiting individuals will be easier with Open Webs capabilities of finding future prospects, but one cannot help but point out the increased importance of keeping your Facebook and Twitter on lockdown.
PCMagazine brings up a compelling example about how deep is it okay for employers to dig into peoples social lives? "Will that Twitter post you wrote two years ago about some random, possibly controversial topic come back to bite you when you thought your resume spoke for itself?" This was always a concern in the past, but Open Web makes it easier for employers to look back in a social media timeline.
You say you're in the social media marketing, physical therapy or education field and Dice only deals with the technology industry. With the power of Open Web, outside job sites and recruiting firms may want to buy this service for their own clients. Keeping this in mind, social network profiles should be frequently updated and checked for any individual looking for a job. Especially those who are going to be entering the workforce in the future as PCMagazine points out. High school students and undergraduates beware.
Social media is becoming the main hub of every ones lives and will dictate how the world perceives you, if it hasn't already. This evolution in social interaction is unavoidable either. Yes, Dice's new tool can only access public information, but you might miss or forget about profiles made years ago. Do you still have a MySpace account sitting quietly waiting to be found?
Always Google your name on a frequent basis to check for possibly forgotten profiles. Spend some time on current social profiles going back through the past to make sure information you would like private isn't public. This is the future and job seekers need to prepare more than ever. Believe it or not, our aggregated social profiles are the resumés of the present and no longer the future.