So You Hate Your Job, Part I: Social Media

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I hate talking myself up so I’ll say this, and please don’t ever make me say it again: I work at a Fortune 100 Company as a Recruiting Manager, have considered getting a Miata, and I know what works in the job market…sooooo just trust me and never make me bring that up again and we can be cool.

Okay, so I’ve decided to start this series out with social media, specifically LinkedIn. If you didn’t know, immediately after Thanksgiving and all the way through early January is a complete and total dead-period when it comes to recruiting and hiring.

Why? The hiring process is long, usually 6 weeks from the second you hear back from a recruiter. People also have short memories when it comes to hiring and interviewing candidates mainly because hiring managers hate having to hire people and want to focus solely on their 9-to-5 and don’t put a ton of thought into hiring. With that being said, this means that this is prime time for you to focus on fixing up your LinkedIn and cleaning up your other shit so you can hit the ground running come January. LinkedIn is heavily frequented by recruiters and it is quickly rivaling Indeed when it comes to finding quality candidates for the jobs you actually want.

General: Turn OFF the feature that pushes your profile updates to your connections. Seriously, you are probably connected with your boss or someone like that bitch from accounting who is still pissed about the Christmas Party. When they see you start tidying up your page, it signals 100% that you’re about to change your job or at least exploring what else is out there. Hide the crap out of fixing your page to your connections.

Your Photo: Your photo needs to be a headshot or a photo of you giving a speech somewhere behind a podium that makes you look professional and shit. What do you wear in your photo? Well, that depends on where you want to work. The best rule of thumb is that you need to be dressed one level ABOVE what the average person at your target company wears. If you want to work at Facebook, you don’t necessarily need to be wearing a suit in your photo. Culture fit isn’t just some shit someone made up, people pay attention to that and it matters because we are all gentle little snowflakes sipping PSLs. It is very possible to be overdressed in your photo depending on the job you want.

Your Summary: This is one of the first things people will read when checking out your profile. It is also your chance to add SOME personality to your resume, but don’t go fucking overboard. Think of this as a professional summary. Don’t write it in third person. Use different ways to describe what you do.

Example: if someone asks me to fill an account executive role, I will jump into LinkedIn and run a search in the city I want. I will cast a wide net, so to find an account executive I will search the terms: Account Executive, Client Manager, Customer Success Manager, Account Representative, Customer Manager, Stakeholder Engagement, etc. If you use those words throughout your page, LinkedIn will tell me you’re a good match because you hit those words multiple times. If you’re a good match, I’ll likely view your shit first. Move yourself to the front of the line. The same applies to your resume that you’ll post on Indeed and which I’ll cover later on.

Your Experience: Your LinkedIn isn’t your resume, but it’s pretty damn close. If you post your entire resume on here divided up into your experiences, you’ll be just fine.

Education: Don’t lie. I’ll find out eventually if you did. Was your GPA above a 3.75? If it was, great, post that shit on your page. Was it below that? That’s fine, but don’t post your GPA and never plan on bringing it up again. Were you in clubs or anything like that? Post it. Being in multiple clubs demonstrates that you have social aptitude (culture fit) and that you won’t just sit at your desk refreshing PGP every Wednesday around 11 CST waiting for TGDAG to hit the site. People want to hire people they like, if you can demonstrate that other people seem to like you, most recruiters and managers will give you the BotD.

How Best to Use It: Fun fact: most recruiters get bored during work hours. Hell, I am writing this article on a Monday morning, which is usually prime time for me. Because recruiters get bored, they frequently read articles that either apply to them or apply to their line of business while scrolling through LinkedIn (which they do almost all day long). Because they peruse the articles, they also peruse the comments section of those articles.

You absolutely need to comment on relevant articles to your work, line of business etc. as this is a great way to get noticed by a recruiter. Don’t be a blowhard, but if you have the ability to provide reasonable input and discussion on various topics, you’ll stand out. If your company does something amazing like donating to the military or an animal shelter, marketing and PR at your company will ensure that there is a news article on it. Publish that article to your page with a comment like “Feels so great knowing that my company cares about the community!” People will read that shit and likely view your profile.

Further, by commenting on articles it shows that you are active in your space and that you give a shit about how you present yourself online. By demonstrating this, recruiters will assume that you’re in the market and they’re likely to reach out to you. Recruiters will sometimes not engage people they deem as passively job hunting. They don’t want to commit time and resources to a candidate who may not be interested in leaving their current job. If you can demonstrate your engagement level on LinkedIn, without tipping off your boss, you’ll be well ahead of the pack.

Facebook/Twitter/Insta: I’m sure you’ve read somewhere that most companies will check Social Media during the interview process to see more about a candidate (culture fit). While that may scare you, what most companies usually check is LinkedIn and just LinkedIn. Most don’t even Google your name during the process. With that being said, clean up your shit on Twitter. No middle finger photos or shit like that.

While it probably won’t be checked, be prepared. Just because you are going out to a bar for a guy’s night doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance of getting laid that night. Always take a condom, always clean up your social media presence. .

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Kiawah Island Strip Club

I'd rather be golfing. Seattle sucks so I write about that. Also work...ish in recruiting. Shoot your resume to kiawahislandstripclub@gmail.com for any and all job hunt questions.