Could your use of social media be harming your job prospects?

Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are allowing recruiters to dig deeper into the lives of potential candidates than ever before. With over 1 billion people using Facebook alone, our online presence is more prominent than ever. As many employers are now choosing to use Facebook to screen potential candidates, young people in particular are unwittingly putting their career opportunities at risk.

The Recruitment Society and CIPD report they are seeing more examples than ever of inappropriate photos and comments on social media sites. Gone are the days when you can say whatever you like online without repercussions. 17 year old Dan lost out on a job at a café chain after making jokes on Twitter. He is also being followed by his prospective university, meaning any inappropriate comments he makes could have a huge impact on his future.

Today being social media savvy is essential if you want to stay on the right side of recruiters. You may be surprised to learn the recruitment practice of using social media is perfectly legal provided the employer doesn’t make any decisions based on gender, age or race. As the information is publically available, often all it takes is a Google search for recruiters to find your details. Unless your privacy settings are watertight you could be publishing images and commentaries which make employers think twice about hiring you.

Young people in particular are at risk. With universities encouraging students to apply for graduate schemes during their final year, many students are unprepared for the social media scrutiny this can bring. With the competition for graduate jobs increasing year on year, recruiters are looking for any opportunity to thin the pool of candidates. If your social media presence isn’t up to scratch, you could be taking an early exit from the recruitment process.

Everyone likes to party and have fun, but your future employer doesn’t want to see you drinking that foot-long beer in Prague. Trust me. Often all it takes is a quick tinker with the privacy settings and you’ll be kept in the running for your dream job. Facebook in particular is highly customisable; you can even group your contacts into categories, allowing you to limit the exposure of posts to a close group of friends.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of people getting fired due to inappropriate use of social media. I’m talking about the people who phone in sick and then post pictures of themselves on a night out. The people who slag off their boss and forget he’s on their friends list. While these stories make good headlines, they don’t hold resonance with the majority of readers. Such stories are the very tip of the iceberg, and as we often credit ourselves with more intelligence, many people dismiss the warnings surrounding social media as something for other people to worry about.

In reality if your social media profile is holding you back, chances are you wouldn’t even know it. Recruiters rarely have the time or inclination to give feedback unless it’s expressly requested. Sometimes all it takes is a dodgy profile picture or throw away comment for your application to be rejected.

CV Knowhow offers a defence against the over-zealous recruiter, by offering a review of your social media presence for £20. As part of our CV Writing Service we’ll give you feedback on your online presence, giving you the benefit of an outsiders view. We’ll point out anything you should watch out for that could give recruiters doubts as to your suitability. By making the necessary changes based on our advice you’ll be able to boost your chances of bagging your dream job.

Submitting a professionally written CV

Submitting a professionally written CV for a specific job role can not only significantly boost your chances in today’s job market but can set you apart from the rest of the competition.  With more than 67 candidates going for any one job position, it has never been more important than ever to stand out – and the best way to achieve this is to make sure that your CV is in line with employer requirements.

As the competition is currently so tough and the job market so challenging, prospective employers and recruiters have a list of requirements that they expect a CV to meet, on sight, before they will even consider the same. By using a CV Writing Service, you are ensuring that all of these requirements are met, covering every aspect of the CV, from the length, font, layout and language.

If your CV doesn’t begin with a professional profile and a full career history isn’t on your CV, then you run the very high risk of not even having your CV considered.  This can also be said if your full contact details aren’t displayed clearly and that you have failed to include your education details.  All of this can go a long way in making sure that you will be considered by prospective employers.

Employers and recruiters aren’t interested in design or colour, unless of course it is relevant to the role you are applying for.  But if it isn’t relevant, then the very best thing you can do is to make sure that your CV is as clear and concise as possible and always in black and white.  You will also receive more interest if your key achievements, as well as your duties and responsibilities, are clearly outlined, so a prospective employer or recruiter can find they information they are looking for quickly and efficiently.

By making sure that your CV is not only easy to read but also contains as much relevant information as possible without going over the maximum requirement of two pages.  It should accurately reflect your skills and capabilities and make you as appealable as possible to a prospective employer and recruiter.  A professionally written CV not only makes you more attractive as an employment proposition but also makes the life of employer/recruiter much simpler.

Investing in a professionally written CV not only benefits you and employers/recruiters, but can make the navigation of the employment process easier.

Exciting developments lie ahead for SOLIDstaff. We have now joined forces with Quality in Tourism, the assessment service for VisitEngland, the English Tourist Board website.

We will be the sole recruitment site for the company and will be offer discounts to employers who register with them. For employees, that means more companies registered with SOLIDstaff and more job opportunities.

With 23,000 members looking for staff, 2012 is looking good for those registered with us.

The summer season is approaching

We are well into spring and Easter is only a few weeks away so thoughts of many of us will be towards finding a seasonal job for the summer. Hopefully the Olympics may create a few more jobs while the Euro crisis and rising fuel prices may persuade more people to holiday at home.

More improvements have been made to the site with the addition of subscriptions. Instead of searching every day to see if a particular job has appeared, you can save the job title or category (and optional town, county and country) in a subscription and you will be emailed whenever a suitable advert appears. You can have three separate subscriptions with differing sets of criteria and you can even choose how often you wish to be notified (in case daily emails would be annoying).

We haven't forgotten employers either. Subscriptions are there for looking for staff with options such as availability and contract.

Just log in, go to the Account Admin page and click on the 'Manage Email Notifications' button. You can even make a subscription direct from a search.

Get ready for the year ahead

This year has already threatened to be as hard, jobs-wise, as last year. There are many people chasing the jobs there are so it's vital that your 'advertising' - CVs, covering letters, interview techniques - are polished.

At SOLIDstaff, we are trying to help you find that job. Work on the subscription emails is progressing and should be available by April. Then you will be able to be alerted by email whenever a suitable job is posted. You will be able to create two subscriptions so you can choose different jobs and different reminder periods. Employers will also have similar subscriptions to be on the lookout for staff.

We are linking up with Green Tourism, an important business website that matches tourism with concern for our planet. We are also trialling a partnership with Working Links who work closely with recruitment and training.

Finally, an interesting looking advert for any chefs who fancy working on the beautiful South Devon Coast. A sous chef is wanted at the Cottage Hotel - London wages with a Devon lifestyle as they say. Just search for ID 2069.

End of 2011 summary

It's been a busy year for SOLIDstaff and we haven't sat on our laurels. We are always looking for ways to improve the use of our site and the search for a job or employee.

Employees

For those looking for work, we have added a count of your CV viewings so you can see how often your details have been viewed by potential employers. We know how encouraging it is to see your 'hit count' rising and to know that something is happening at the other end.

We've also added quick searches for categories with vacancies, job titles with vacancies and vacancies by company to take you straight to where the jobs are.

The layout of the advert view pages has been improved, removing the pop-up windows and making the layout clearer. You can now step through the various adverts from the display page instead of returning to the results each time.

We have implemented automatic emails to remind you of things that you may have forgotten to do, such as enter your job history. We realise though that too many emails can be annoying so we limit the number of these sent out, and you always have the option to switch them off.

We also added many design tweaks just to make the process easier or less tedious:

• Permanent arrows on the right hand side of the page to quickly take you to the top or bottom

• Disabling the town and county menus when you select a country outside of the UK

• Sorting the towns by county

• 'Step' arrows at the top of the Personal, Career and Job History pages to help you make your way through the registration process

Coming in 2012

• Subscription emails - get an alert when a suitable job is posted

• Favourites Search - save your preferred job title or category and, when you log in, see immediately which jobs of that sort have been posted since you last visited. An easy way to check every day!

Employers

We haven't forgotten those looking for staff either. We also added a count of your advert viewings so you can see the interest that each advert has generated.

When posting adverts (and filling in the company details), you can now fill in the postcode and get the town and county added automatically.

When you view someone's CV, it is no longer in a pop-up window and the layout is clearer.

You can now step through the various adverts from the display page instead of returning to the results each time.

You can also immediately view all the categories which have applicants to save you making a full search.

We have implemented automatic emails to remind you of things that you may have forgotten to do, such as enter your company details. We realise though that too many emails can be annoying so we limit the number of these sent out, and you always have the option to switch them off.

Similar design tweaks to the employee side have also been added.

• Permanent arrows on the right hand side of the page to quickly take you to the top or bottom

• Disabling the town and county menus when you select a country outside of the UK

• Sorting the towns by county

Coming in 2012

• Subscription emails - get an alert when a suitable employee registers

December 13th update

Another week and another addition to the SOLIDstaff site. We have now added counters for both employees and employers.

For employers, it records a 'hit' every time a potential employer views your details and is shown on the top right of your home page. If you're not getting any views, think why? Have you filled in as many details as you can, including job history? Is your personal statement likely to intrigue employers and make them take the next step? Check the 'Preview' page to see how your CV will appear in search results; get as many contact detail and upload icons as you can.

For employers, the counter records the number of views of each advert and is shown on the 'Adverts' page. Again, if your advert is not getting many views, can you make it more enticing to potential employees?

Meanwhile, a temporary full-time chef is wanted in Gloucestershire for £18000 plus tips (ID 1529)