Tech-Res cautions job-hunters using social / business networking sites

Social and business networking sites are becoming increasingly popular for job hunters who are keen to broaden their contacts to keep abreast of potential employment opportunities. However, it is critical that you approach this with your eyes open and with caution.

Despite the ethical dilemmas, both Recruiters and Employers now regularly use networking sites and online profiles to source and check potential Employees, researching your “social CV”, to give them a more comprehensive view of what type of person you are really and what you get up to out of work.

Accordingly we advise those of you using social media to be extremely careful when deciding what content you put in the public domain. Of course it is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, but would you really be happy with a potential employer viewing photos and video clips of what you and your pals got up to at the weekend?

Think carefully who can see your profile and don’t allow your job seeking efforts to be hindered by displaying inappropriate content. We also strongly recommend taking some time to secure your various profiles to ensure photos, status updates, comments about your boss etc are not visible publically and suggest you manage your contacts cautiously.

Furthermore, sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Zoom, Bebo, Twitter etc can leave you wide open to identity theft – just a name and date of birth can give fraudsters sufficient information to open bank accounts / credit cards in your names, let alone making it relatively easy to identify your mother’s maiden name, home town or even your football team or cat’s name!

So please exercise extreme caution when deciding what information you make available to your friends and the wider public and NEVER disclose detailed personal data.

Having said all this, if presented in the right way, profiles on such sites can portray a compelling yet personal representation to employers – either potential or current.