Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Are recruiters using Facebook?

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file1111243438731Do you know what recruiters like more than anything? Easy access to find quality candidates and few barriers to entry. Do you know one way you can provide this? Use Facebook as a professional platform.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know posting unprofessional information on Facebook can prevent you from landing a job. Employers don’t like profanity, comments about illegal drugs, posts of a sexual nature or excessive misspellings and bad grammar. What they do like, according to Jobvite’s research, is to be able to find you online and to learn about you. If you put time, effort and energy into creating some public information in Facebook, you could find yourself with a new job sooner than you thought.

Recruiters are looking for you.
Recruiters will source new hires where ever they can find them. With the exponential number of people using Facebook and the amount of time they spend there, it isn’t surprising to learn from Undercover Recruiter that 70 percent of recruiters say they connect better with potential jobseekers due to widespread use of Facebook and 85 percent of recruiters using Facebook recommend it as a tool to other recruiters. (Tweet this stat.)

Companies are spending a lot of time, effort and money to connect with you on Facebook. They want you to “like” their career pages, and they hope you’ll post smart messages there. Don’t disappoint them.

Make your information available.
You don’t have to post your vacation photos for everyone to see, but if you want to be found, it’s a good idea to allow certain sections of your Facebook profile to be public, including: Work and Education, Professional Skills and Contact information. Not only will this make it possible for people looking for someone with your skills to find you, it also provides professional information that will help people in your network connect with you when they are in job search mode.

Another benefit of making this data public, it allows you to engage with Glassdoor.com’s“Inside Connections” tool, which provides job seekers access to their Facebook networks to identify people who work at companies with interesting jobs. When people in your network provide public professional data on Facebook, you’ll also be able to access information from friends of friends for networking purposes via this tool. Clearly, making these items public on Facebook helps you be found as well as enhances networking opportunities. Since four in ten job seekers found their favorite or best job through personal connections, don’t ignore this opportunity to tap your online network.

Give them a little something.
Since many recruiters want to know a little something about you beyond what’s on your resume, why not give them a little professional information? Create public updates in your private Facebook page and you have the opportunity to post and share certain items that will be easy for people you do not know to find. This is easy to do.

Follow the link on the top of your Facebook page to check your privacy settings.

Once there, click on the icon that says “Followers” on the left side of the screen. Then, under Who Can Follow Me, select the drop down that says “Everybody.”

This will give you an option to create public updates and for people to “follow” your public updates. Public updates can include links to news about your industry. If you’re in customer service, you can occasionally post a public update about the latest customer service trends. If you are a bank teller, you can post links about your company’s financials.

Answer the key question.
There’s no more important question to answer for job seekers than, “How can I help employers find me?” Facebook could be one way to answer it.

Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.

 

Is it a good idea to work for a friend?

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file9571236549144You need a job, and a friend needs some help. Perhaps it’s a match made in heaven. Or, it’s the beginning of a nightmare you wish you never began. Does working for a friend offer potential or pitfalls?

Is it a good idea to work for a friend? In certain circumstances, where the stars all align, it can be great. If you plan ahead and consider potential pitfalls, you’ll have a better chance of thriving in this work situation.

Consider the worst-case scenario. 
If things don’t work out, how will you feel if you lose the friendship? If you’re considering working for your very best friend, it may be too much of a risk.

What’s your history with the friend? 
One of the good things about working for a friend is that you may be able to rely on your knowledge to predict how she will be as a boss. Use what you know about your friend to decide if your relationship could overcome a professional disagreement or split. Does your friend hold grudges? Is he very dogmatic and only sees things his way? Have you experienced any difficulties or disagreements in your friendship in the past, and were you able to get past them? If your friendship has never been stressed and tested, it may not be the best idea to start now. However, if you know you can argue like cats and dogs and still “kiss and make up,” perhaps it’s worth the risk.

Make sure you are qualified. 
Usually, it’s up to the boss to decide if you’re qualified for the job. However, when you’re considering working for a friend, it’s a good idea to be responsible for figuring out if you’re a good match for the job. (Tweet this thought.) Your friend may give you a generous benefit of the doubt or assume you know certain things you really don’t. Be clear about the job description and how you can help accomplish the goals. If you can’t solve the organization’s problems, don’t take the job.

Get it in writing. 
Nothing is worse than ruining a good friendship over a misunderstanding. If you don’t already have one, ask for a definition of your job in writing. It’s important for everyone to understand what you are hired to do, and having it in writing means there’s no room for questions later.

Expect conflict. 
It’s not unusual for people who know each other well to eliminate professionally appropriate filters from conversation. Expect it will be tense at times. Conflict isn’t always a bad thing, and you can always agree to disagree.

Communicate.
Communicating clearly will be important before you decide to take a job working for your friend, and it will be even more important once you are working for him or her.

Make a well-informed decision. 
Without a crystal ball, you’ll never know if working for a friend will work out or not until you try. Just be sure you don’t go in blindly and overlook potential trouble spots and red flags.

Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.

Is it okay to swear at work?

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Don't Say That jar, collecting coins for bad wordsIt wouldn’t be surprising if you’ve heard what used to be language reserved for the locker room at work. As what used to be considered vulgar language makes its way into popular culture and finds its way on TV, many believe it’s appropriate for professional settings, too.

Academic research validates that, sometimes, swearing does not negatively affect credibility. Forbes reported on a study by Cory R. Scherer and Brad J. Sagarin, who were at Northern Illinois University. Students listened to three speeches, and the two whose speakers cursed scored as being more persuasive than the speech without curse words.

In their study “Swearing at Work and Permissive Leadership Culture: When Anti-Social Becomes Social and Incivility Is Acceptable,” researchers Yehuda Baruch and Stuart Jenkins, of University of East Anglia in the U.K., discovered that swearing at work can actually help workers bond together, improve team spirit and form relationships. Especially if it’s unexpected, swearing can win attention (both positive and negative) and the user may gain authority, even if just for the moment.

If swearing can win friends and influence people, is it ever a big mistake?

In cases where professionals are expected to refrain from impulsivity, cursing at work may be damaging. If your job is to appear in control at all times, randomly letting out a stream of expletives is not going to enhance your credibility or trustworthiness. Additionally, keep in mind, some will view your use of profanity as a weapon to try to dominate a situation or to aggressively seize power from more polite peers.

There are also gradations of swearing, and some may be more acceptable at work than others. For example, saying, “sh**” after spilling a glass of water on yourself is unlikely to raise many eyebrows. Cursing someone out because they’ve made a mistake, on the other hand, could get you in trouble, even in the most profanity-friendly workplaces.

Should you drop the “F-bomb” at work? Interestingly, a survey on the Today Show’s website suggests no, by a vote of 31% to 69%.

Unless it is clear (for example, in many trading floors in the financial sector or on a loading dock) that swearing is an acceptable and expected way of communicating in your workplace, with so many potential uncertainties, including gender dynamics, individual preferences and the emotional responses possible, the best advice is to use profanity sparingly, if at all, when you’re at work.

Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.

Things that drive you crazy about corporate life

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file0001344010980What drives you crazy about the corporate world? In an environment where conformity seems to be the rule, you may have even caught yourself participating in some of these hated rituals – even as you mock them to friends in happy hour after work. In the new, third edition of her book, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, Alexandra Levit points out these conventions and traditions we love to hate.

1. Corporate Déjà Vu. It seems as though it’s a requirement in business that you spend huge amounts of time reporting the same information in a dozen different formats, attending status meetings where conversation from the week before is repeated word for word and where you put out the same fires, because your department doesn’t learn from its mistakes.

2. Name dropping. Also known as “invoking syndrome,” this occurs when colleagues try to persuade you to do what they want by name-dropping someone higher up. Whether the executive manager was actually involved or not, invoking him is a manipulative tactic used to get you to bend to your colleagues’ wishes. For example: “Really? Well, I spoke to the CEO last night, and he told me we have to do the event this way.”

3. Ego-mania. When certain people reach a high level in a company, they think that they are better than everyone else and that they are entitled to be treated like a god. Regardless of the issue, they believe they are always right and that they can’t possibly learn anything from someone lower on the chain.

4. Corporate jargon. If you think everyone in the business world speaks your language, think again. The business world’s language is one of subtlety, filled with euphemisms and pet phrases to cleverly disguise what people actually mean.

5. Bureaucracy. How many departments does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Corporate business has a lengthy approval process for everything, and companies delight in changing those processes constantly so that you’re never sure which 10 departments you need to consult before a decision can be made.

6. Hypocrisy. Don’t you just love the way some companies tout values such as quality, entrepreneurship, innovation and integrity, when they would be perfectly happy if their employees just kept quiet and never suggested a disruptive change?

7. Uncommon Sense. Is common sense dead in the business world? People might make a joke of it, but this dearth of logical thought is kind of sad. It’s also frustrating when the obviously correct way to do something is staring everyone right in the face, and no one sees it.

8. Nonsensical Change. Every now and then, companies will decide to throw their departments up in the air and see where all the pieces land. Yes, it’s the reorganization (otherwise known as the dreaded re-org). Despite the fact that it results in mass confusion, greatly decreased productivity and low employee morale, companies continue to do it year after year.

Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.

Is it important to have privacy on LinkedIn?

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DSCN8580Privacy. Clearly, it’s fleeting in our “tell all,” “share everything on social media” society. As the fine line between the personal and the professional (is there even a line at all?) becomes less and less significant, it’s even more important to be vigilant so you know what you are sharing, with whom and potential consequences. Make no mistake about it: it’s up to you to manage your online identify and privacy.

One of the main benefits of using social media is it allows you to be found. In fact, it’s a main tenet of social media; your goal online should be to be discovered, and to magnetically attract people you want to hire you for jobs or consulting opportunities. Traditional media outlets would have you believe the worst thing you can do for your career is post information on social media. They feature big mistakes people make online leading to loss of income and jobs as representative reasons to stay offline.

However, for job seekers and business owners, it’s dangerous to don the online equivalent of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Professional goals are difficult to accomplish if privacy settings are locked down to the point they effectively render the profiles useless. However, reducing privacy puts the onus on the user to understand ramifications of not sharing information they make private.

LinkedIn is clearly a key player in your professional online identity. Your goal on LinkedIn is to connect and engage with people; it’s expected that you will have a LinkedIn profile. Generally speaking, the best advice is to peruse privacy settings and choose the most open (least private) choice. Doing so positions you to be found more easily, and potentially to be invited to apply for opportunities. However, each individual user will have specific goals and reasons to share or want to hide certain information online. Overly tight privacy settings on LinkedIn can lead you to miss opportunities. These tips will help. (Tweet this thought.)

Review and scrutinize your choices on these settings in particular:

Turn on/off your activity broadcasts.
If you’re running an illicit job search, and planning to conduct a major overhaul of your LinkedIn profile, turn this off before making changes if you are worried it will alert your current boss. Consider turning it back on after your profile overhaul is complete.

Because LinkedIn will send out a message announcing that you have a new job if you update your job titles or add a project to your “experience” section, others who sometimes get dinged by this setting are people who own businesses and decide to change their official titles or people in jobs who update their job titles to be more descriptive or interesting. The last thing this group wants is for people to think they’ve taken new positions.

Communications.
Be alert and aware of how LinkedIn works by keeping an eye on messages you receive from the network. Check the “Communications” tab under settings to ensure you do receive the type of messages that will help you decide what you want to share with others.

Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile. If you’re doing some “undercover” research on colleagues or competitors, feel free to set this to “anonymous.” However, leaving the setting locked down prevents you from seeing who is viewing your profile, and that represents lost opportunities. In general, it can be a good idea to let people know you’ve viewed their profile, especially before an interview. It makes you appear to be thorough and diligent about your research.

Select who can see your connections.
Some people worry they’ll compromise their privacy by allowing people to know who is connected to them. If you are in such a cut-throat field that your livelihood is in jeopardy if your connections are revealed, by all means, make this private. However, keep in mind, if everyone locked down this setting, networking on LinkedIn would be severely thwarted.

Change your photo profile and visibility.
This is a non-negotiable: your photo should be viewable for “everyone.” Otherwise, people who may want to learn more about you may be discouraged from reaching out because they see the default “shadow face” LinkedIn inserts in lieu of a picture.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on privacy settings; don’t set them and forget them. Be vigilant and make sure your settings match your goals, and you’ll be more likely to win new opportunities.

Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.