Blog #4: Is Social Media Preventing You from Getting Your Dream Job?

As social media continues to grow everyday, we become even more involved with it. Social media has become part of us in our daily lives. When employers are considering you for a job they can now find out more about you through what you post. Seventy percent of employers are currently screening potential employees during the hiring process. Forty-three percent of current employees are being screened by their employers as well. The more information an employer has about you, the easier it is to make a wise decision for their company. When searching for a job, it is important to have an online reputation. You want to be found, but in a positive way. The second you post something online it is no longer a federal offense, and can be found by anybody. Employers have the opportunity to look deeper into your life other than a phone call interview. They can find personal information about you from your social media accounts. When digging, they want to find information that matches your resume and confirms how much of an asset you would be to their company. To prevent your personal information from being found, you should always keep your social media pages on private. Creating a LinkedIn or Shapr account provides professional information for your current and future employers that can be beneficial when applying for a job.

Although employers are constantly searching you on social media, the good news is is that you don't have to delete your accounts. When going into a job interview, there are a few ways they may try to find a little more information about your personal life. Doing a quick Google search of yourself is important because you can see first hand about what may be coming up under your name. You want to see if there are positive, negative, and accurate things coming up about yourself. Ask yourself, are they relevant? Typically a simple search can share your name, phone number, address, and social media accounts. When searching for yourself change your browser to incognito, so if you are logged into your social media accounts it will show you what would come up if you weren't logged in. Sometimes your personal and professional accounts become intertwined. It is important to separate the two. Keep your professional page strictly professional. Use your page as a platform to connect and boost your career. As we all know, privacy really isn't a "thing" on the internet, but it is important to keep your accounts on private because it does make it more difficult to obtain information. Employers do look for how engaged you are on the internet. Being savvy with the internet is a perk to some businesses, so keep your accounts up to date and be aware of what is being posted under your name.

When applying for a job, as I have stated above it is so important to know what you are posting and who can see it. The "attention young professionals! What's in your digital baggage?" YouTube video does a great representation of what it is like to "out smart" an employer. Never go in and blatantly lie about you, your work, or your personal life. This causes red flags and is very unprofessional. This just goes to show you that the real you can be represented through your social media accounts.

When creating a LinkedIn account, you should follow the profile checklist. You want to share what you envision yourself as. Is there that one employer that is you dream of working for? Add as much information about your achievements and share what your job description is. Embed any professional videos of yourself that you would like to share or even PowerPoint's that you may have created. You want to connect with as many people as you possibly can. Allow opportunities to come forward. If you have connections, employers may see you as a standout among other applicants. Thanks to Patrick Burns, he taught my class how to get started on LinkedIn and how to create a reputation for ourselves.

Chapter One of Untangling the Web lays out multiple sources that can be beneficial for teachers in their classrooms. Symbaloo provides a concise layout of icons that allows you to have multiple on one website. With a single click, you can choose from one of the multiple icons. You create a webmix which is composed of sixty tiles of your choosing on one page. When selecting which website you want to be in, select a blank square, specify what tile you want it to be, choose your design for that icon, and then save it. From here, you can continue to create multiple tiles. The end result of the 10x6 grid is ultimately a dashboard where you can click on the site you want and it will take you right there. Symbaloo is an ideal way to teach students because you could provide them with math songs or science videos. Students using Symbaloo can better there knowledge for school. This can be used as a reinforcement for students learning as well. Some of the popular bookmarking websites have not been able to manage their public development, however, Diigo has been one that has been able to. They have remained popular and have been developing their website. When using the site, you begin with an empty page. To begin filling your page, you have to first install a browser tool bar, from there you can begin to start bookmarking. Bookmarking is now somewhat similar to boosting your PLN (personal learning network). Diigo is helpful for students when doing research projects. As students do group work, they can add notes or highlights of their own to contribute. This eliminates any slackers from contributing to their group. Educlipper is a platform for students and teachers to find, collect, and share content quickly. Users create content to share with others. To add content to your site, you have to install the "eduClip It" button in your browser. You can create images, links, PowerPoints, or PDF files. When integrating Educlipper into the classroom, you can assign the students to pick a topic and create clipboards to to serve as references for other students and teachers that are looking for additional content in those particular areas.