Online Presence

Social media can be a helpful tool when looking for a job - here's how to make the most of it.

img-study-promo-2 Let our Careers team help you use social media to your advantage

Social media: help or hindrance?

Social media is a critical part of our day-to-day communication and has extended its impact on career development. Professional presence on social media can be a real help when embarking on the graduate job hunt, and it allows you to do at least 7 crucial things:

Create your online brand
Support your networking activities
Help you understand the career paths within organisations
See what past graduates from your course have achieved
Allow you to find and apply for career opportunities
Assist with your interview preparation
Help you secure a graduate role

Managing your online presence

Whilst online presence can create opportunities and open doors, it can also ruin your chances of employment. According to research, 50% of employers use social media to screen candidates when they apply. With this in mind, it is important that you maintain professional online presence that creates a positive impression.

Research

The best way to evaluate your online presence is to Google yourself. Look at the results and ask yourself the following questions:

Is what you’ve found professional? (photo, email, content)
Would you want an employer to see this?
Will the information support or contradict what you’ve put in your CV and applications?
If you found nothing, is that really helpful to your professional reputation?

Action: Dos and Don’ts

Learn how to use the privacy settings on all of your social media platforms
Monitor what other people post on your wall and your tags.
Ask others to remove photos or inappropriate mentions of you from social sites.
Share news and have your opinion, however, don’t make negative or inappropriate comments or jokes about people or organisations
Clean up your connections, if required, and network with people strategically. Before sending an invite, think what you can get from this connection and vice versa?
Add links to showcase your work samples
Complete your social media profile i.e. LinkedIn

LinkedIn professional networking platform

LinkedIn is the largest business-orientated global networking platform with 2,161,000 registered users in Ireland. Having a professional LinkedIn profile allows you to showcase your expertise, create professional presence and network. LinkedIn is not just an online vacancy platform. It is best to use LinkedIn as an online career management tool which can help you create and maintain your brand online and develop meaningful and professional connections also.