A Game Changer for Fresh Graduates: Using your Social Media to Land Jobs

According to Kim (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has become an “accelerator for structural changes and digital transformations” in many areas of our lifestyles and economies. One of these is the job industry, which is considered the most highly impacted field- undergoing massive shifts in the setup and processes of “work” that we used to know.

Among the various trends that emerged in this industry, the modern practice of companies using social screening in their hiring process has undoubtedly increased the significance of social media, more so during the pandemic.

Researchers from CareerBuilder, The Harris Poll, and other academic studies have found the applicability of candidates’ social media screening in employers’ recruitment processes through numerous surveys. In the US alone, 70% of employers use social media to screen applicants when hiring for a job (CareerBuilder, 2017). These numbers have only increased during the pandemic, especially now that employers cannot conduct interviews face-to-face as much to get to know candidates beyond their resume applications.

Understanding this procedure is vital because YOU, fresh graduates and job seekers, as early as now, can start building up YOUR social media profiles. Not just to look like another copy of your resume but to paint you as a distinguished candidate by letting companies see the YOU behind a professional facade.

Moreover, this would be an excellent opportunity for fresh graduates to market yourselves more as job candidates despite not having as much professional experience as already established workers. After all, your social media can reflect all the projects and accomplishments you have done, even as a university student.

Now, it does not mean completely obscuring your personality and writing scripted posts that make you sound like an AI jobseeker template profile. Still, you can certainly make-do deleting those embarrassing videos you may have posted from boredom weeks ago or a lousy joke you may have unwittingly shared during your childhood years.

Simply put, crafting your social media entails making it coherent with your personal branding that you would want companies to associate with you. You can do this through the following tips and tricks:

1. Know yourself and present yourself accordingly.

Your social media is a compilation of content you hold dear to your heart and content you believe in indefinitely. Hence, the content that you publicly post should align with your personal values. To filter content effectively, ask yourself, “Is this the kind of content that I want to be remembered for?”. Whatever you post online reflects your personality, so keep that in mind.

Read A Good Sample To Do Employer Branding on Social Media

Fresh graduates should do this so that companies can know what issues and principles you align yourself with, as they are the kind of information that determines how well you would fit in with the company’s culture, vision, and goals. In fact, some companies include reasons for rejecting an applicant based on inappropriate photos and discriminatory posts found in the applicant’s profile. As the adage goes, please think before you click; it might cost you your next job!

2. Don’t be shy to show off your hobbies.

Post the things that would highlight and enhance your best qualities! If you love volunteering or engaging in community service, you can post photos or write engaging captions of how you find meaning in such activities. If you love taking pictures of landscapes, then you can post your latest photography projects! Perhaps, you even dabble in drawing and designing your mind’s random musings- share your creation with the world!

These might not directly be considered professional skills, but they will be an advantage to any position you’re applying for as a new jobseeker. Perhaps the company is looking for someone with leadership skills, an eye for aesthetics and design, or even prowess in writing. Nevertheless, these hobbies may prove fruitful as they contribute to your overall honing and value as a future professional. Having these skillful hobbies on your profile will boost your position as a candidate for employers.

3. Create posts that celebrate your accomplishments.

Not all of our achievements can be put on a resume, especially if they are numerous. These may include any form of academic achievement, organizational projects, seminar and training certifications, and even personal growth. You can choose to include these in your social media accounts- not to brag, but to be proud of what milestones you have achieved, no matter how small.

Besides building upon professional experiences, you can present yourself as a well-seasoned candidate by showing off the invaluable undertakings you are successful. These can help employers see how multi-faceted and adept you are as a candidate through your list of triumphs. Furthermore, it helps support the professional qualifications you put on your resume.

4. Make sure your captions and posts are credible, personal, and grammatically correct.

Besides the interview, you can make a lasting impression on employers with your good communication skills online. You can do this by posting engaging and educational content that speaks about your opinion on the latest trends and issues plaguing our world. If you want, you can even tailor it to the industry or field you are applying to and interested in highly! Whatever the content you post, make sure that it is true not only to you but also to facts and data. Social media is notorious for fake news, and this would not do you any favors as a candidate should you engage in such matters.

Moreover, your captions and posts would also mirror your fluency in writing, so make sure to keep the proper grammar. Despite the tendency to indulge in slang and internet jargon, you should still make sure to correct your sentence structure and spelling, as u wud not want companies 2 see u typing lyk dis???!!!. Again, be true to yourself- use emojis and words that you would use for your own, but make sure to express yourself and interact with others online amiably and appealingly.

All in all, these are the ways to maximize your use of social media to help you with your job search. Competence is the name of the game, and organizing your social media is one of the ways to play it. With so many platforms connecting accounts to each other (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc.), it is now easy for companies to view a candidate’s digital footprints in just one click. So, in standing out among the plethora of candidates, make sure that your profiles show your unique and creative branding. Let recruiters see you as not another cog in the recruitment machine, but as a valuable future asset to the company.

Use these tips to spruce up your Kalibrr profile- if you don’t have one yet, make one today!

Kalibrr is a recruitment technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, we continue to attract the best talent from all over, with more than 5.5 million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.

For more tips on acing job interviews, follow Kalibrr on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tiktok.