Chelsea talks about the various social media behaviors that are likely to turn off future employers, especially when you’re looking to land a new job.
Hey guys it’s chelsea from the financial diet and this week i wanted to talk to you guys about how to present yourself online when you’re looking for a new job and perhaps especially when you’re looking for a first job because obviously when many of us are going from the world of adolescents or college into the world of being gainfully employed adults there’s a good
Chance that the way you were portraying yourself online before is maybe not exactly how you want to be portraying yourself online now so if you’re watching this channel chances are you are someone who grew up with social media for most of your adolescent to adult life i’m 30 years old for example and i can remember presenting myself online on things like aol instant
Messenger from when i was as young as like 12 so basically from that time until now i have been creating a digital footprint for myself and really curating a perception of who i am and this is never really more true than with social media obviously that started for many of us with myspace which thank god that is not the social platform on which we are being judged
For employment but when it comes to social media you’ve probably had something whether that’s facebook twitter instagram snapchat pinterest myspace or all of the above and while many of us think of our linkedin’s as the primary space where we’re curating a vision of ourselves for future employment that is not the only place that employers are likely to look any
Social media of yours that is public whether or not it’s technically considered fair game in your eyes is something that a hiring manager or employer is likely to check out and there’s a difference between adapting your whole online persona to suit a future employer and just being opportunistic and realistic so i want to specifically talk about the social media
Behaviors to avoid when you’re looking to appeal to an employer now obviously all of this will come with the caveat that it is always an option to make your social media totally private or to have alternate accounts that are just for personal stuff but the thing about making your content totally private is that for many of us in many industries having a robust
Social media following or using it in a really intelligent and relevant way can be a contributing factor to getting a job you love so striking that balance between using social media to your advantage but not letting it potentially harm you is of the essence and so provided you do have publicly viewable accounts of some kind here are seven behaviors you’ll want
To avoid if you want to appeal to an employer number one is complaining about your current job now this is a fine line here because obviously there are some exploitative or truly unfair employment situations which you have every right to take action against but complaining publicly on social media about a problem with a current employer is often simply not in your
Best interest for a couple reasons one it could potentially get you fired from the current job that you’re bitching about online this exact thing happened to me once at a job but moreover if it’s about a problem that you are specifically looking to fix publicly complaining especially as a first step is often not even the best way to fix a problem thinking first if
This is something that could be possibly explored through hr routes or employee advocacy groups or even federal or state labor bureaus should be first stops on the train to potentially fixing a problem now if this problem is something that you can’t necessarily kick up the ladder because say your boss is just being really shitty and annoying it is very likely that
You’re going to want to complain about this but again doing so on a public social media platform can put you in a really tough position with the next employer who’s potentially looking to hire you long story short when you’re speaking that way about a current employer it sends the message that you could do it easily about your next employer and that as i mentioned
Before you’re not even necessarily exploring the appropriate avenues to solve a problem and it’s particularly bad if you’re doing this consistently i know a few people in my industry who have publicly spoken ill about or burned bridges with multiple employers and it’s kind of like when you go on a date with someone and they describe most or all of their exes as crazy
That’s kind of more of a red flag about them ultimately you’re probably gonna deal with some shitty bosses or shitty times at work inevitably and sometimes it’s worth kicking up to a higher authority and we did a whole video about the options that are available to you if you are being mistreated at work which i’ll link you guys to in the description but just publicly
Complaining about an employer on social media can often and the wrong message about you and if you are currently looking for a new job you’ll want to make sure to go back and set to private anything that could be construed as talking go vent to your friends or coworkers that’s what they’re for number two is posting gross or graphic photos people use social media
In all kinds of different ways and i know that some people tend to use it in ways that i would describe as like a little tmi in the sense of like people will get some kind of injury and then they’ll post on instagram close-up photos of said injury with no warning and listen just as a random consumer on your instagram feed i’m like this is disgusting i wish i could
Bleach my eyes why did i have to see that but imagine if i were scrolling and i was a potential future employer basically you should not have things on your publicly available feeds that make people repulsed and it’s weird that i even have to say this but this is kind of a common thing like people do not want to see a photo of that weird ingrown hair on your
Thigh nor do they want to see video evidence of the time you were walking home from a bar and saw someone throwing up if you do have a burning desire to post gross out content on your feeds honestly have at it but create a separate account so that people are not shocked and appalled by the things that happen to come across their feeds both potential employers of
Course but also the random friend who has you added on instagram ie me it’s just off-putting and potentially sentence the wrong message number 3 is posting excessive photos of alcohol consumption now listen if you’re above the age of 21 and you want to have a drink and maybe post a picture of it have at it i’ve certainly done that in my life many times and it’s
Not something that you have to hide but that being said once you’ve reached a certain point in adulthood it’s not exactly the best look to constantly be posting photos of consuming alcohol to the point of total drunkenness or having alcohol present in almost all the photos you post or talking constantly about needing a drink or looking forward to a drink we tend
To really normalize what our in many ways not healthy alcohol behaviors on the internet i could go on for days about how problematic the wine mom memes are for example and it can lead us to believe that showing ourselves the light of constantly drinking isn’t that big of a deal and honestly it’s a free country you have every right to post picture after picture of
You drinking those bulldog margaritas if you so choose but think about the message that that would send to a potential employer aside from the potential liabilities about behavior and responsibility obviously it paints a portrait of an adult who maybe doesn’t have a super balanced and healthy life outside of work and frankly comes off as quite immature so while you
Definitely don’t have to hide alcohol consumption on your feeds take a minute to consider how you’re portraying yourself in the context of drinking and if it is something you’re doing and posting about every day i would maybe consider that in the context of your life number four is writing or linking out to extremely offensive material now everyone is going to have
A different definition of offensive which is why you may want to consider having an alternate or private account if you’re someone who frequently discusses what could be potentially controversial or taboo subjects but for example i’m on social media i’m a woman i see many men who will link to or write about what i consider to be very sexist material and of course
Offensive is going to be in the eyes of the beholder and in most cases i’m not in the position of potentially hiring those men but with the choice to discuss these potentially taboo topics comes the responsibility of assuming the backlash if someone who’s potentially hiring you could see these things and feel offended by them i mentioned in a recent q&a that
I have definitely lost opportunities because i choose to speak publicly about my progressive politics it may come as a surprise to some but the financial industry and the financial media industry on the whole tend to be quite conservative and i am not so i know that there have been and will be instances in which my choice to speak very frankly about my politics
May cost me but as the owner of this business i have that freedom and believe that the benefits largely outweigh the costs but if you are on the job hunt and maybe don’t have that luxury that is something to consider and remembering that what may be totally normal to you may come off as offensive to someone else is something always worth considering when on the
Job hunt in particular a good litmus test of course is to think is this degrading to a group of people or to a particular set about is or is this something that i wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable bringing up at work if the answer to these things is no it’s not that you shouldn’t say them although obviously when i see guys posting really sexist memes every
Now and again i wish they wouldn’t say them but you may want to choose to be a little bit opportunistic and either keep those posts private or hold off on them until you’ve found the job you’re looking for number five is swearing constantly now i’m gonna be totally honest i curse kind of a lot especially on social media so coming from me this may seem like a bit
Of a hypocritical piece of advice but here’s the thing when i worked at other jobs i cursed way less and i certainly didn’t curse in the workplace and i was careful to make sure that the platform’s my boss was potentially seeing me on i was not constantly dropping all the f-bombs i so longed to be dropping again this is one of those things where an alternate or
Private account may come in handy but long story short if you are consistently speaking in a way in which it would be considered inappropriate to speak in if you were at the office that doesn’t send the best message to a potential employer ultimately when you’re looking for a job you’re going to have to adhere to the culture of that job and if you come across
At first glance like someone who is not going to fit in at all with that culture that’s going to be a red flag and let’s say for example you’re the type of person who really needs to be using certain social media in order to present either a portfolio or raise their platform or show that they can do the type of work that would be needed of them at their job this
Would be a perfect case to have a personal account which many of my friends in the industry have made because they don’t want to have to act like doris day 24/7 on social media thinking actively about the way you’re presenting your communication online doesn’t mean totally changing who you are it just means adopting your outward persona to the situation you’re in
And if the situation you’re in is the job hunt that’s something to consider number six is getting into public social media fights now this one i feel extremely strongly about i have been on social media for years and on twitter especially i have been very active for those years and twitter is basically where grown adults go to have extremely childish fights and
I decided several years ago around the time i started my business that i was not going to argue on social media i’m not going to fight with people i’m not gonna defend myself i’m not gonna have a back and forth if they want to talk to me i am always free by email you can even call me but i am not going to fight with another grown adult via two hundred and eighty
Characters because here’s the thing about fighting on social media even if you win you lose because you fought with someone on social media and you look like a petty dumbass but you usually don’t win usually no one wins because it’s extremely difficult to portray yourself in a coherent and thoughtful and nuanced way when you have limited characters in which to
Speak the platform isn’t necessarily adapted to conversation and you have a bunch of people watching you like just imagine if you were like standing in the lobby of a hotel with like a hundred strangers around you just like pointing and yelling at another adult it’s crazy and of course you can stand up for yourself you can clarify something you can even get in the
Occasional one-liner if someone said something really ridiculous but engaging in an actual social media fight basically gains you nothing and it makes you look either combative or childish especially to that potential employer as someone who does a fair amount of hiring that is one of the few things that i really look for on people’s social media are they super
Combative do they get into a lot of fights on social media because to me what that really reflects is a greater lack of maturity i have had conversations many times that started on the internet and ended up in a really thoughtful interesting way but consistently we immediately took things to email or in person it’s not that hard to say hey it’s really hard to have
This conversation via back-and-forth tweet or instagram comment why don’t we take this somewhere else and while in the heat of the moment it can feel hard to say that knowing when to take that extra minute to step back means so much all of that to say social media fighting is just not the best look number seven is failing to understand how privacy settings work if
You are going to go the route of making your social media private you have every right to do so and perhaps for some of you it will cost you a little bit in potential opportunity by not being able to portray yourself a certain way on social media but for many people the benefits weigh the costs and you just want to be able to be totally yourself and unconcerned
With potential employers by going totally private on social media that is your right but it is so important to know in that time that whether or not you are totally private on social media will come down to you understanding the privacy settings on each platform making yourself unsearchable for example making it so that when your content is shared on other peoples
Pages it can’t be seen deciding to whom your content is private or what parts of your content are private all of these are things which need to be considered per platform so if you think you’ve made yourself private and are behaving as if you’re totally on private but you’re not an employer is actually seeing it that’s on you taking a few minutes to really understand
Each platform and making sure that only what you want to be seen is seen is essential especially when you’re on the job hunt ultimately you get to choose how you use social media whether you use it to your advantage or to your detriment you get to decide what’s public what’s private and the persona that you want to create to be seen not just by friends but even by
People who may one day hire you and i firmly believe that learning to use social media in an intelligent thoughtful and creative way can be the key for many of us to getting a better job than we might otherwise have been able to get because it can tell so much about you in a very good way but if we don’t use it correctly it can have the opposite effect as always
Guys thank you for watching and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and to come back every tuesday thursday and friday for new and awesome videos bye you
Transcribed from video
7 Social Media Behaviors That Will Keep You From Getting Hired By The Financial Diet