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The Career Impact of Social Networking:
10 most common mistakes that are made on social networks - mistake 6-10
The dangers that Facebook and other sites can have on your career your personal life - and what you can do about it
- part 3 -
6. Publishing too many details about your private life, your likes and dislikes, or how you spend your free time
Especially when applying for a job, you want to make the impression that you are an enthusiastic, engaged, and interested future employee. Social networks are ideal for allowing you to do just that. You might find yourself walking a tightrope, however, if information about each facet of your life can be found on the Internet. Even innocent comments about one’s personal life or lifestyle can be negatively interpreted by a future employer. Before you publish something on the Internet, you should ask yourself the following question: Do I really want a (future) boss or client to know this about me? Otherwise, a discussion regarding whether or not to invite you to an interview could include statements like: "But on Twitter, Mr. Smith can be quoted as saying…"
7. Posting “questionable” pics A picture is worth a 1000 words
- so don’t give your boss the chance to view you in a compromising situation. After insults, pictures are the second greatest source of scandal on social websites. Also, keep in mind that you don’t always have control over what gets posted on which sites. A few snapshots taken by someone you hardly know also have the potential to cause you grief. For this reason, be aware of your behavior when camera flashes are going off.
8. Ignoring security measures
All social networks are have deficiencies when it comes to data protection and data security. Therefore, users should reveal as little personal data as possible and make sure their profile is visible only to true friends – which means those whom you actually know well enough to trust. This is especially important during a job search. In order to create a clear separation between a personal profile (ex: Facebook or MySpace) and a public profile (ex: Xing.com or linkedin.com), it is best to use a pseudonym for your personal profile and only communicate your real identity to true friends.
9. Answering questions
you don’t have to Party photos should not play a role in the recruitment process, and interview questions about one’s personal life are only permissible if they are relevant to one’s professional activities. This is the basic theory behind a new federal law that regulates the protection of workers in Germany. Accordingly, employers should keep in mind that recreational social networks like facebook and myspace cannot be used in recruitment and selection processes. This follows the same line of legal principles that make certain interview questions off-limits. For example, questions about one’s health, financial situation, or criminal records may no longer be asked by a potential employer unless they are relevant to the job. Despite these legal guidelines, applicants often end up disclosing personal information without ever intending to do so. Keep in mind - regardless of whether Internet posts and pics are allowed to be used in the selection process - those that create a negative impression in the eyes of an employer can negatively affect your chances of getting a job.
10. Sharing too much about your personal life Are you someone who likes to announce to everyone what your favorite foods are, what you saw at the movies last night, and why you would rather waterski than lay on the beach? Yes, everyone has their preferences, and it is fun to talk about them. However, in a business environment, managers expect capable, effective, committed, and trustworthy staff members and teammates. In this arena, discussions about your personal likes or dislikes can be inappropriate and unprofessional. These topics don’t even have to include controversial issues like politics: such “extra” information can lead an employer to question the negative impact that such information could have on the organization. For this reason, it is best to create a clear boundary between the type of information you reveal in your personal profile and that which you reveal in your professional profile. The level of transparency that today’s global connectedness provides can pose a danger for our reputations at all levels of social contact.
Conclusion: Through social networks, we are all becoming “transparent personalities”. The traces that our lives, our connections to others, and our need to communicate leave in the virtual world allow others to draw their own perceptions about who we are. Because each individual viewing our profile can interpret our personalities differently, we never know how accurate the conclusions that are being drawn about us actually are. Everyone needs to be aware of this fact. Ironically, the transparency that the Internet has created, has caused society to be more careful about ethically and morally questionable behavior. Many would be surprised that highly-advanced web analyses are currently being used to generate personality profiles from Internet details. The rapid adoption of smartphones will lead to the next chapter of intelligent networking as our cell phones connect us with virtual radar that allows others to know exactly where we are.
P.S: Social networks in Germany
(sources in German language only)
Appendix 2: How to revive your personal network
Before you start adding new people to your circle of friends, it makes sense to first strengthen your existing contacts.
Here are a few tips for doing just that:
- Start with a comprehensive inventory. Who do you already know?
- Find a large sheet of paper or use a mind mapping program such as www.mindmeister.de, which can help you to visualize your network.
- Place yourself in the center of the network and add points around the periphery that represent your life’s progress: grade school, high school, college, first job, etc. Ask yourself: who were your most influential contacts and who were those individuals in contact with? As you begin to list names, create branches that represent the different areas of your life: family, schoolmates, colleagues, friends, former colleagues, college friends, associations and networks, neighbors, friends of friends.
- The graphical representation of your network is meant to spur your creativity and help you think of individuals whom you may not have otherwise thought about again. Remember that the larger your existing network becomes, the more a mind mapping program has advantages over a pen and paper map.
- When taking such an inventory like this one, many people are surprised by how many contacts they already have and how few of them are being actively maintained.
- Now, decide which contacts you want to reactivate. In order to keep your network manageable, it is best to limit yourself to three contacts at a time.
- Write down a goal or an event for each contact. Then, make a phone call, write an email or send a postcard as soon as to these individuals as soon as possible.
- Make time to respond to those who write back to you, and be serious about maintaining the contact. Don’t extend invitations or make plans that you don’t intend to follow through on.
More tipps and also addresses you will find in our article networking in this book.
[ This article is publised in the 2011, May, June and August newsletter of the Language Institute Newsletter Sprachinstituts TREFFPUNKT ]
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