Ok, Ok, I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted. Months actually. I have no excuses except that I finally landed a job, yeah!!!
I’m still in staffing but I’m only doing temporary staffing nor direct hire AND it’s general rather than niche. That means I staff anything and everything that gets thrown at me.
It’s been a while since I did general temp staffing and although I remember the pace being quite frantic, I forgot what an emotional and physical toll it can take. The good thing is that I’m so busy I don’t have time to think about anything else, the hard part is turning it off at night.
I had been thinking that I needed to start writing again, then on Tuesday I attended an event hosted by CareerBuilder that hit me like a bucket of cold water and said “WAKE UP! STOP PROCRASTINATING! START WRITING, you lazy….!
The first part of the presentation was about social media and simple strategies on how to boost your brand using sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc. to attract potential candidates as well as clients. However, what I took away from it, and I’ve talked about it before is the need to create my own brand that I can take with me regardless of my employment situation.
By creating my own “Michelle Becker, Super Recruiter” brand, I can build my own following of potential clients and candidates as well as intellectual capital that I can leverage.
My goal over the next few weeks is to discuss a variety of topics related to the job search. I have also set a goal of posting one blog a week. I’d like to do more but I think once a week is all I can manage at the moment.
Getting back to the CareerBuilder event.
One of the issues we spent a lot of time on was corporate social media policy, and of course the conversation naturally turned to the monitoring of employees internet usage and particularly Facebook.
We’ve all heard stories of individuals not getting jobs because prospective employers have searched these individuals Facebook pages and decided that the candidate was not suitable for the company. And of course reasonable people like us, think, well they were stupid A: because the potential employee in question didn’t make sure their privacy settings were turned on and B: Facebook is still to a certain extent, even if your privacy settings are on, it’s still public and you should be responsible for what you post.
BUT, that being said, I also found out, that some companies will hire people to FAKE “Friend” current and potential employees as a way to have access to their Facebook pages. So even if your Facebook is on the tightest of privacy settings, if you happen to friend one of these fake friends, your employer has access if they want.
So take heed to protect yourself, I suggest the following steps:
a: make sure your privacy settings are on
b: don’t “friend” anyone you don’t personally know, OR if it’s a friend of a friend anyone that your mutual friend can’t personally vouch for.
c: Be careful of what you post on Facebook. Don’t air your dirty laundry in public, don’t write anything that you wouldn’t want to come up in a court of law, keep the profanity to a minimum if at all, don’t post girls/boys gone wild photos, and definitely don’t vent about how your boss, co-worker, company etc sucks, especially if you are currently in an active job search.
Remember: “Big Brother IS watching” it pays to be a little paranoid.
That’s all for now, I think it’s time to re-read 1984 by George Orwell
Until next time
Michelle
