Social Media Presence

Your social media presence

LinkedIn profiles

If you haven’t yet considered setting up a LinkedIn account, you could be missing out on another opportunity to promote your skills and experience. It’s used in a very similar way to your CV – think of it as your electronic version which people can view online. It is also a great way to network with people who work in the type of industry or job you want.

You’ll need to include:

• a professional photo
• a summary of yourself
• work experience – keep this more succinct than your full CV
• skills and expertise – you can select from a list of option; only include the ones you’re really proficient in
• education and qualifications

You can then connect the people you know on LinkedIn. If they are previous work colleagues or managers, you could ask for a recommendation to confirm some of your skills.

Social media tips

Some employers will use social media to check people’s profiles before offering them a job – there are no laws against doing this so make sure that whatever they find will not put them off. You can help yourself by:

• Making your profile on sites such as Google+, Facebook, and Instagram restricted to be visible to just your friends. All of these sites have pages that allow you to set your privacy settings.
• There should be no bad language and opinions expressed should not be offensive to others – if in doubt, don’t post it (or delete it if it is too late)
• Be aware of any photographs you are in that might be visible to the public – think about whether they are photos you would mind a potential employer seeing.
• Remember that things on social media sites stay on there – there have been cases where people have lost their jobs over things they posted when they were younger.