The way people prepare for and enter the job market has completely changed since the prevalence of social media has grown. “More than a third of employers admitted that they would not interview a candidate if they could not find any information about her or him online” (Liang, 2015). Since when is this normal and a fair way to judge someone on their professional experiences? Online presences in social media have given employers a key into accessing who you are privately outside the office. Therefore, professionals either looking for jobs or professionals already employed in present times have more pressure and difficulties placed on them due to social media.
“Social media encompasses many different types of opportunities to engage” (Walaski, 2013).
The most relevant issue to be tackled is that you are not only being judged on your professional experiences and abilities, but also who you are and how you act in your personal life. Social media has provided an outlet for employers to peer into their employee’s personal lives.
A prime example of this (that many people probably still remember) is when a woman got fired over a questionable picture that went viral. This photo captured her flicking off the president’s motorcade as it passed her on her bike. She never asked for this to be taken or it to be made viral online, yet she had to suffer consequences. If social media did not exist, only the people there would probably known about this incident and it probably would not have been circulated, especially to her employer. Therefore, she never would have lost her job. I am certainly not condoning what she did, I’m simply just saying that social media made it relevant to an unwanted audience and led to the demise of her job.
This is only one example of a countless amount of cases where someone’s isolated actions have been documented and have unfairly been used against them in their professional lives. The idea that your career is constantly threatened because of your online presence and could end because of one wrong move adds to the pressure that you have to be 100% perfect inside and outside the office.
You are damned if you have a presence and you’re damned if you do not.
A lack of an online presence is just as damaging as having negative content throughout your social media accounts. It inherently suggests to employers several things that might not be true at all. One is that you are lacking technical skills and do not have the “ongoing dedication to learning new technologies or solutions that will continue to advance in the changing workplace” (Rowan, 2015). It sends the message to employers that you are refusing to upgrade your skills and that you are not willing to evolve.
Rowan also suggests that a lack of an online presence leaves a void suggesting that you have nothing to offer. The absence of online participation such as sharing content, participating in groups, and giving your informed opinion suggests that you are not a thinker, innovator, or leader.
Although I am not someone without an online presence, I do know that my digital footprint is not the biggest. It is hard finding the balance between showing that I am technically competent and that I have things to offer employers while at the same time not oversharing or not giving a true representation of myself online. I think that this is something that many people other than myself struggle with. Again, this is another way in which social media adds unnecessary pressure to its users, especially the ones getting judged by future or current employers.
I’m not saying that it’s only negative.
Ultimately, by putting information into the online universe you are making it available in a public sphere. A great number of people use social media publicly in a graceful way that truly represents who they are in personal and professional aspects of their lives. How content from these profiles (whether good or bad) gets digested by employers is subjective and I think that might be what the main struggle of it all is. Because social media now exists, there is a pressure that exists and will never go away.
Liang, S. (2015, October 7). How Social Media Affects Your Chance of Getting Hired. Retrieved from www.sfu.ca: http://www.sfu.ca/olc/blog/csi-blog/how-social-media-affects-your-chance-getting-hired
Rowan, R. (2015). Why a Dodgy Social Media Profile is Better than None. Retrieved from Undercover Recruiter: https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/why-no-social-media-presence-is-bigger-red-flag/
Walaski, P. (2013). Social Media. Professional Safety, 40-49.