A large part of our social lives, I hadn't really thought about it as a part of our professional lives.
The lecture that was given during the second Leicester Award for employability workshop, provided some useful insights into how to create your own personal 'brand', by using networking sites. The very first tip that I took away from the session was to Google yourself occasionally to check that there isn't any false or unwanted information about yourself on the internet, that could potentially harm your employability. It was emphasised that in today's accessible world, the majority of employers turn to social networking sites to determine the type of person an applicant might be, before interviewing them. Although not the best source of wisdom I certainly remember this being a storyline in sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which just goes to show how common place it has become.
The other useful thing that I got out of the lecture was how networking can be useful to you. There are many a story that details how people found their job simply by tweeting, but those are always a fluke occurrences. However it is true that these sites allow an applicant to interact and ask questions with an employer, make themselves known and promote themselves outside of an interview environment.
Finally, it was suggested to revise the sorts of things that you post on the sites mentioned here. This might mean making your posts a little bit more PG and less 18+, but also making it more interesting to those who come into contact with it. In a survey shown to us, it was said that tweets that have thought provoking ideas, or random questions that might be in the news or that people can relate to are more interesting than an update of daily life, i.e 'Going to Nando's'. Yet once again a balance needs to be struck, between making yourself sound like an intelligent soul, but also one that has a life and interests.
Here's that How I met your mother clip!
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