Cleaning up social media before applying for internships/grad jobs

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What is their definition of offputting?

Primary would be anything slagging off the firm itself or any other firms (there are some brutal stories of how people lost training contracts via this, one guy had his letter rescinding it handed to him by the magician at the firm's Xmas do as the culmination of an otherwise innocuous trick).

Besides that it would be any controversial political opinions, particularly those affecting clients (so, for example, a firm which had a lot of ME clients may be wary of a student posting virulently anti-Palestinian messages), but also obvious stuff like Holocaust denial, BNP support etc. and a clear lack of thinking before committing stuff to Facebook/Twitter, eg. slagging off Ann Maguire or suggesting Ian Huntley's a top bloke.

Ultimately though they can decide pretty much anything is not to their liking. There's virtually no way you could prove that was the reason, and even if you did and shoehorned the reason into a discrimination claim (eg. someone Jewish being denied the job for expressing views they see as simply pro-Israel), taking on a major law firm (or other multi national) in a tribunal is not something that's likely to end in success.

Reply 21

ElChapo

Original post by Maxbb1

Hm Imagine if you don't have a twitter , Facebook and Instagram what is the likely response of HR ? I'm guessing they feel you are a loner. I used to have fb but deactivated it ages ago. I don't know if when I apply I should just activate it so it seems like I do use social networking

To be honest, I don't know but it seems a bit ridiculous that not having social networks can go against you... I'm sure many of their current employees don't have them, and social networks seem to cause more problems to companies than they solve when their employees slag them off or reveal confidential information

Reply 22

orange crush

Original post by Le Nombre

Wait so telling everyone how smashed you got last night and being a little loose mouthed isn't a major issue?

Reply 23

Le Nombre

Original post by orange crush

Wait so telling everyone how smashed you got last night and being a little loose mouthed isn't a major issue?

It doesn't look great and I'd keep it hidden, but they're aware what uni is like, after all they went in the most part. In the City in particular as well there is quite a laddy atmosphere, if getting battered of an evening sometimes was a firing offence there'd hardly be anyone left.

Reply 24

orange crush

Original post by Le Nombre

I'm probably just going to leave it up there then. If they were so conservative that they would refuse to employ you based on that then I wouldn't really want to be working for that kind of person. What about pictures? In drunk in 99% of my pictures

Reply 25

Le Nombre

Original post by orange crush

Ditto, no one seems to mind, though in my cover and profile pic I am not obviously drunk.

Reply 26

orange crush

Original post by Le Nombre

Ditto, no one seems to mind, though in my cover and profile pic I am not obviously drunk.

Fair enough, might need to dig up a decent sober picture of myself over the summer. Got nearly 10000 tweets to go through as well :/ how far do you think these people track back in order to find something dodgy?

Reply 27

Le Nombre

Original post by orange crush

No idea, I don't use twitter much at all. I imagine it'd depend if they find anything dubious in the first couple of pages they might dig further.

Reply 28

TolerantBeing

Original post by ElChapo

I've heard that they prefer to see some sort of online presence just so they know you aren't some sort of recluse.

Am I the only one who thinks this is complete bs? All the employer cares about is whether you fit the role, if you do, and seem like a confident person then I can't see them giving a **** whether you have a twitter or not.

It reminds me of when I was in 6th form and the teachers were all 'universities don't just want an academic person with their head in the books they want you to be into sports, socialising and all sorts'. Complete rubbish, people went by that advice and later learned that the only extra curriculars you want on a personal statement are relevant ones.

Employers don't have time to scour through social networking sites.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 29

Le Nombre

Original post by TolerantBeing

They do, or to be more exact HR do. They have people employed specifically to recruit a hundred or so graduates a year, that's a lot of time in the grand scheme of things to achieve one task.

Reply 30

Hedgeman49

Original post by TolerantBeing

They really do have the time to check. It would probably take them all of 15 mjns on each (nearly) successful applicant to check they aren't a massive bigot / liability.

However I am not so convinced that lack of social media is a negative.

Reply 31

orange crush

One way they can save time is by only doing to the people they actually intend on hiring, so they'll ready your CV, interview you and then if they want to offer you a job they'll start the background checking. If something they don't like shows up then they'll move to the next person on the list

Reply 32

TolerantBeing

Original post by Le Nombre

They do, or to be more exact HR do. They have people employed specifically to recruit a hundred or so graduates a year, that's a lot of time in the grand scheme of things to achieve one task.

Not all jobs have HR.

So you're telling me a university looking to hire a research associate would give a crap about their social networking?

A radiographer? A vet? A primary school teacher? A roof thatcher? Chef?

Maybe for roles which requires sociability do, such as working on accounts, sales etc. But I feel like for a lot of professions, the employer really wouldn't care.

Reply 33

Le Nombre

Original post by TolerantBeing

No, but presumably OP has worked that out and is thinking of applying to blue chip grad schemes. Though I know some teaching jobs do, my Mum and Dad are heads and they check out all shortlisted candidates on FB now, seems pretty common. Admittedly they do it to check you're not befriending students, but whilst they're there they have a nose around.

Anyone who has to worry about their public image, which is most emloyers, will give a **** what you're going to be saying on social media because ultimately it reflects on them. For conservative, liberal professions it will be stricter, but most will have some interest.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 34

russellsteapot

It'll be a small percentage of companies which actually bother to check. Even those who say they check probably don't. HR isn't some kind of overlord vetting the life out of applicants, they don't even check grades on your certificates half the time, and spend most of their time doing incredibly mundane **** like processing absence forms, leaving forms, application forms, dull data entry, sickness forms, payroll and administration. Hardly any companies have the kind of HR people are talking about here.

I do enjoy the 'this is what they like' stuff, though. Particularly the odd quasi-urban legends, like HR requires enough online presence to make it seem like you're not hiding, but not too much. As if there's a balancing act and they're all the same. Or my favourite (not so applicable here) that HR prefers a 2.1 to a first, because a 2.1 shows you 'have a life outside studying'. As a drunken photo does, I suppose.

The evidence available is largely common sense and anecdote. Everyone has a horror story of how their friend/cousin/dog/cat got shot in the middle of the office because they put three x's on the end of a Facebook status. Of the hundreds of people I've interviewed, I think I looked at one of them's Twitter because they (inexplicably - it was standard inane friendtalk) put it on their CV. I've known enough private sector employees to know that most of them don't have time to **** about on social media stalking their entry-level graduate applicants.

Of course, it's very much a 1984/panoptic scenario. You probably aren't being watched, but are you going to take the small risk that you might be?