With the snow finally melting and the sun beginning to shine down on the beautiful city of Madison, no one welcomes the first signs of spring more than Sconnie students. But as the finish line to another year of college draws closer, the fear of finding a job can be frightening for those about to graduate. As social media continues to grow as an information sharing source within society, employers turn to outlets such as Facebook increasingly while searching for new hires in an attempt to learn as much about candidates as they can. Here are some of the do’s and don’ts of how you can create an informative Facebook profile that shows off worker qualities and accomplishments while providing a unique portrait of yourself as a person:
DO have a profile picture that shows your personality… to an extent. No employer wants to see those deuces and duck lips selfies or a photo of your shining moment beside the keg on game day, just as you wouldn’t want to work in an environment that fails to take its employees seriously. Before you start the job search, make sure that your profile pictures shows a smiling, confident, yet collected version of yourself, as that will be what employers are looking for, regardless of what job you’re applying for.
DO include a thorough record of your work and education history in the “About” section. Advertising your schooling and job experiences, regardless of whether you were a bartender on State Street or had a once-in-a-lifetime internship in Los Angeles last summer, shows that you have marketable skills. Any sort of interaction with customers or even other employees is a major selling point because many of those sorts of abilities are universal and can transfer over to be used in other job fields. Never be shy about the fact that you have been actively working both as an employee and as a student!
DON’T include fifty million page likes in your “About” section. Try to stick to a few page likes for each category that show off yourself at the present time and make you seem like a well-rounded, interesting individual with qualities that pertain to the job you’re applying for. Examples of things you don’t need to show up under your likes are: “When you get a text from that special someone” and “Smile because it makes your day” and “Sleeping.” Feel free to express your interests, but make sure they are up to date and to set a limit so employers can quickly scroll and receive a snapshot of who you are.
DON’T think that just because the photos you are tagged in are not visible to the public and only your “friends” can see them that employers still can’t find a way to look through them. More and more these days, places looking to hire are finding ways to look at entire Facebook profiles so they can see if the person in the profile picture and at the job interview matches with what goes on behind the scenes. While most employers realize that the people working for them have a social life separate from work, they don’t want to see their employees’ drunken adventures, so make sure all of those partying college pictures show a smiling, clear-eyed face, sans red solo cup.
