Social Media Overhaul & the Amazing World of LinkedIn

Step 1: Organize a Resume (see my last post)

Step 2: Social Media
    Before handing your resume over to any employers take a look at all your social media sites. Employers DO  look at your Facebook/Twitter to find out what kind of person you and if you are the right fit for their company. Most students refuse to believe this and deny that a future employer will have access because they have profiles set to private. WRONG! Within the past few months I have heard from two company top dogs that the first thing they do after interviewing a prospective intern is check them out on Facebook and Twitter. One woman, a past Vice President of a communications co. and now Managing Partner for a prominent Orlando PR firm, said she hired an intern and promptly fired her one week later after coming across her Facebook profile. Employers are looking for red flags including:

• Posts relating to partying, drinking, drug use, and profanity
• Pictures showing underage drinking
• Tweets with alcohol related content and hashtags (#sodrunk), especially if your underage
• *These all include pictures /posts you are tagged in so watch out*

Pictures: You went to the party, you had a great time, and you may have drank a little too much. The Internet world doesn't need to know about it. If you are serious about working in the professional world one day it is important to keep inappropriate pictures off of social media sites. I sometimes even have a hard time letting go if a photo is great but there happens to be a drink in my hand. Every now and then I go through my photos and delete anything I have to pause and think about as being inappropriate. 


Step 3: Linked In
 If you've never heard of LinkedIn, it's basically the professional version of facebook. You set up an account and your profile is your resume. From there you can search through an endless amount of companies and other business people who also have LinkedIn pages. From there you choose to form a "connection" with them. Almost like friending someone on facebook. You can find companies positing about job/internship positions all over the world. You can also email people directly from their LinkedIn page inquiring about any openings they may have. THE BEST FEATURE: anyone you "connect" with shares their connections with you. I have a connection with a one of my  college professors and through him I now have contact to 500+ professionals that he has done business with all over the world.

Check out my LinkedIn site for an example:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brittany-szafran/46/179/361