Job Hunting? It’s Time to Clean up Your Social Media!

Needing to clean up your social media is not scaremongering. In fact, it’s vital to make sure your social media footprint is squeaky-clean as part of your job search. As a London recruitment agency, we see all too often that candidates are hindered by a quick Google search. Employers do this when recruiting for reputation-heavy roles such as PA jobs. However, we’ve seen how vital it is for temping in London too.

Employers mining for treasure

Even when they’re using a London recruitment agency, employers rarely rely on an application or CV alone. Staggeringly, 65% of recruiters admit they check social media as part of their candidate screening process.

An employer can, to some degree, verify your education and experience through LinkedIn. They may be able to see who you have connections with, follow, or share interests with to assess your cultural fit. Importantly, they’ll get their first impression from social media. That first impression often “sticks” and is hard to erase from their minds. Interestingly, 57% of employers say that a social media search has led them to eliminate a candidate.

So, it’s crucial that you take steps to clean up your social media. We recommend the following:

1. Know thyself: Get started on cleaning up your social media for a job search by Googling yourself. Put in your first name and last name and see what your footprint looks like.

   First of all, identify the links to your name that link to social media. Use this information to see how easily you disappear among others with the same name, or whether someone else’s reputation could be mistaken for yours. Use this exercise to identify and delete old accounts. Go through at least three pages of results.

2. Consider your photo: Knowing that employers will likely be searching, use a professional profile photo. Use the same photo across all of your social media accounts. It doesn’t need to be too formal, but should show you as well-presented. No snaps of Friday night cocktails!
3. Get editing: Go through all of your social media accounts and remove anything that could be deemed inappropriate. Definitely remove anything that could be construed as discriminatory or offensive. This is also relevant for memes you share.
4. Follow and join: It can boost your social media profile to follow influential and relevant people for your career. Join relevant career-based groups and industry news sites. This demonstrates your enthusiasm and interest in the sector, rather than just your penchant for funny cat videos.
5. Get private: Whilst fully locking down the privacy of your accounts may be an option, you may choose to allow access but ensure that what is shown bolsters the employer’s impression of you. Whatever you do, make sure you’re certain which privacy settings you’ve chosen.

Whether you’re seeking temping opportunities or a permanent role, it’s worth taking a few hours to clean up your social media, so that it “sells” you as the candidate the employer is after. Especially when it comes to PA jobs in London, you will often be representing the highest levels in the organisation, so a clean social media profile is essential.

Love Success is a leading PA and secretarial recruitment agency in London.
Our recruiters can help you find secretarial jobs, office support jobs, and top PA jobs in London.

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