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Several things need to be up to snuff before online job hunting. Your resume needs to stand out from the pack, your LinkedIn profile should be current and slightly braggy and doing due diligence on a company before applying is crucial.
Simply Hired is imploring job hunters to pay close attention to something even before resume sending and humblebrag loading your LinkedIn page. Be aware of precisely what’s on your Instagram and the message it’s sending to potential employers.
A recent study conducted by the job search website found that hiring managers are more likely to check your Instagram account before looking at LinkedIn or other online profiles. Why? They’re not interested in your photos of epic pork roll sandwiches or obsession with Funko Pop collecting.
“Instagram and Facebook show a living, breathing person,” explains Carly Johnson, a project manager with Simply Hired. “It’s great to have a second level of information. Recruiters often go to Instagram and Facebook to determine the kind of person the candidate is beyond their resume.”
Many companies use Instagram to gauge if a candidate is genuinely the person they claim to be in the interview process. A marketing agency hiring manager told Fast Company she looks for five critical values in a potential hire –kindness, smarts, integrity, passion, and hustle — and she goes looking for those beliefs in an IG feed.
While it’s important to pull down any questionable content — like being blasted at the Super Bowl — but don’t take down all personal photos or pictures dedicated to hobbies or passion projects. “Hobbies show that a person is well rounded,” said Johnson. “You don’t want someone who is all about work and a robot.”
Many of the hiring managers polled by Simply Hired admitted to checking other social accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to get a read on the type of stories people share and their interactions with other users. While these practices technically aren’t illegal, there are some issues which could arise after a potential employer pokes around on your social accounts.
David Weisenfeld, a legal editor for XpertHR, told FC that “If the applicant somehow becomes aware that the employer accessed this information via social media and is subsequently passed over for the job, this knowledge could boomerang against the employer and potentially lead to a discrimination claim.” While this would be tough to prove, companies need to be careful about how far they dig into each applicant’s personal life.
If you’re looking for a job, just keep in mind that potential employers could be watching, so either make accounts private if you don’t want to take down any photos or live with the risk of losing out on potential jobs because of questionable content.
[via Fast Company]