How Social Media has Changed Hiring

To hire or not to hire, that is the question

I’ve got a front row ticket to the theatre of interviews and resumes.

The age of social media has changed interviews for both the interviewer and the interviewee. As an interviewer, I have learned two things. One, all resumes are largely lies. And two, all interviews are just pure theatre. Some people are better actors than others.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t do interviews, or I don’t want a resume. Both are a necessary part of the process.

But I go into both of them — and I suggest you do too — with a healthy degree of skepticism.

This resume is such a lie that John Smith probably isn’t even his real name.

Given that disposition, social media has allowed me a much greater insight into the real nature of people, particularly when they haven’t taken the time to clean up their accounts or conduct themselves better. If I can see that they are one thing on social media, unfiltered, and another in their resume and interview, then the theatre and deception are presented to me clearly. That disconnect tells me everything I need to know about that individual.

If people don’t care about their personal brand, both as they live their lives in the normal course of events or most certainly when they have begun the process of seeking jobs, that tells me a lot, may I say all I need to know, relative to that individual’s care, concern and importance of their own personal brand to themselves. If they don’t care about their own personal brand, why should they care about mine? And therefore, why should I hire them?

Are you showcasing reality on your social media, or a fake version of it?

In that front as an interviewer, social media has been a significant help to me in weeding through the ambiguity of and the pain of the interview process.

On the other side, as an interviewee, I like that social media demonstrates my true nature. In the back of my mind, I am very conscious of the image that my accounts send of me to the known universe. If I want to send image x,y or z, then I send that by virtue of how I manage my feeds. If I don’t care, then I send that image by virtue of the way I don’t manage my feeds. I can very quickly begin to build a brand persona and a reputation that will either be supportive or undermine the imagery I want to create when it comes time to apply for position.

So social media to me as an interviewee can be very, very helpful.

In both cases, the more information that can flow between two parties, the better. The more that as an interviewer, I can get a true insight to the real nature of the individual, I’m better off. As an interviewee or an applicant, the more I can present my true self whether I come across that way on my resume or in my interview is helpful to me as well.

The big secret here is that social media is used just as much in a hiring decision as the interview and the resume.

Be very careful with your personal brand and know that it’s being watched and that you life is laid bare by virtue of the care and concern you take in your social media feeds. Simply put, social media has transformed the job application and job interview process. If you are aligned in your presentation of yourself across social media, the interview and your resume, the theatre begins to fall away.

Aaron Webber is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Webber Investments LLC, as well as a Managing Partner at Madison Wall Agencies.

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