The Affect of Social Media on Tomorrow’s Job Search and Beyond
Q: What role will social media play in tomorrow’s job search? Hiring? Firing?
With social media becoming an ever growing part of an individuals’ life, social media will have a great impact in how and if people will be hired in the future. We are already seeing this happen in society today, however I believe that this way of screening employees will only grow to become one of the more prominent ways of hiring or firing. Further, our online presence will grow more important to each person individually as well as beyond the issue of job search.
Currently, about 90% of job seekers use social media and 40% of employers use social media to screen a client. Thus, it can be said that use of social media in the professional world is catching up. While employers may be searching one’s social media for positive aspects, it is known that the search is mostly for negative aspects of someone, such as unprofessional photos, inappropriate actions or language, communications skills, and so on. Of that 40% who use social media to scan candidates, 34% of them found information that caused them to turn away a candidate. I don’t know about you, but that number is quite alarming.
Hence, it is quite important that one keeps up a professional and appropriate online presence so as to avoid this unfortunate issue. Further, a professional online presence is a positive attribute to an individual beyond employment means, and can help build a strong online network. However, taking this further beyond just job search, how curated will one’s online profile become in the future? If people are so scared to post things about themselves they feel may offend others or put them self in a negative light, how genuine will their presence be?
I recently watched an episode of Black Mirror titled “Nosedive” in which this scary future is projected. Without giving too much away, this episode depicts a society in which online ‘status’ (determined by how well received one’s online presence is to others) is the core factor within one’s life. I mention it here because one character in the episode loses his job due to having a low status rating. However, the status was used to determine who is capable of buying a home in a specific neighbourhood, the privileges you can receive at an airport, and the friends you associate yourself with. It is also depicted that most people in this society projected a perfect image of themselves online simply to maintain a high status. Further, one’s online presence control’s their physical reality as well, as any negative physical reactions result in people lowering your score.
In short, the episode shows how social media may grow to become such a strong aspect of someone’s life that it will have the capability to control not only one’s online reality, but every aspect of their physical reality. It will segregate society and determine how one is able to live. It is interesting to imagine how this will play a role in not only job hiring, but more so in how it will affect society as a whole.
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