Five social media mistakes that can cost you a job

With  Ozioma Ubabukoh,

07053937947 oubabukoh@punchng.com

Your social media posts may win over friends and get you few hundred or thousand likes, shares or retweets, however they can also cost you a job. Here are five social media mistakes most likely to cost you a job:

• You complain about work

When hiring managers sometimes browse through social media profiles of candidates, imagine what their impression of you will be when they see job complaint posts on your wall. They are very likely going to be turned off and conclude that you are a potential danger to their brand (mainly because there is nothing to stop you from bad-mouthing their firm too). The question then will be, ‘Will I want to hire a person that can be a potential danger to the brand of my firm?’ and the answer to that question is quite clear.

• You’re vulgar or offensive

If you (with a personal account that you can be identified with) are offensive or vulgar enough on social media to warrant mentions or retweets, it’s out there for everyone to see and it’s especially visible to headhunters or hiring managers. For hiring managers or headhunters, it speaks volumes about your maturity and professionalism level (or lack thereof). God help you if the firm you applied to is in anyway affiliated to anyone or any organisation you have insulted on social media (Sergi Guardiola comes to mind here).

• Sharing your latest job offer

Some job offers are sometimes confidential and unintended to be shared in a space as public as social media. As a result, some firms react negatively to this, may see you as having broken confidentiality and may revoke their job offer. In the event, you can share the good news about the job offer with everyone and anyone, be sure you don’t say anything negative about it, which can be seen by an employee or anyone affiliated with the firm or company.

• Mocking or complaining about your customers

Especially if you are working in the service industry, this is another social media activity to avoid. Like complaining about your boss or work, mocking or complaining about customers can also have equally negative effects. Complaining about your customers shows your company in a bad light, and if any of your customers see this complaint, they are most likely to report to your employer who is very likely to not tolerate such behaviour from an employee.

• Contradictory posts

A candidate once narrated a heart-wrenching story of how she had to quit her previous job because she was injured in a car accident and was unable to return from a leave of absence. The hiring manager then decided to look through her social media profile and found pictures of her lounging and waterskiing on vacation around the same period. That was all that was needed to knock her out of the running for the position. Be careful with social media.

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