Facebook Profiles and Job Success

We’ve all heard the advice to clear our Facebook pages of compromising photos and we know that potential hiring authorities peruse social media to see what we may have posted that is publically available.  If you’re in charge of hiring, you are doing this as well for your prospective hires and for current staff if a problem emerges.  (Some are even going too far by asking for their potential employees’ log in information, but that is a topic for another time).   These efforts are aimed at finding “dealbreaker” information about job candidates, such as a tendency to broadcast risky behavior.  It speaks to your maturity and judgment and can be used against you, as a Secret Service agent found out recently when he posted unprofessional comments on Facebook about his time protecting Sarah Palin.

But did you know that other things in your or your team members’ Facebook profiles could do more than predict failure, that those profiles could indicate success factors, too?  Researchers had participants take personality inventories that measured conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness.  Three raters looked at their Facebook profiles and rated them as well.  Six months after getting hired, supervisors rated each participant on job performance and there was a correlation between the Facebook ratings and performance, even stronger than the relationship between the personality inventories and success. 

Two quick caveats should be noted:  One, correlation is not causation, so no one is saying that having a great Facebook profile that shows how open to new cultures or fun you are causes success.  They are saying that the two are related, meaning that who you are in terms of those five characteristics and your likelihood of success are reflected in things like your Facebook profile.  Two, this is a small study so wholesale changes to screening policies based on these findings should wait until more research is done.

This story does provide you with a good chance to evaluate yourself, however.  You’ve already scanned for compromising things, but take a moment and look at your Facebook page as objectively as you can.  What does it say about you, when viewed through the lens of a potential employer?  Do you have lots of arguments with friends, venting or other caustic comments, or are you supportive and happy?  Do you talk about reading a smart new book (or classic old book)…or the latest trashy novel?  Do you have pictures of yourself on your trip abroad…or pictures of yourself doing something that would put off most supervisors as they picture you at a conference or trade show away from the office?  Take this opportunity to use Facebook as a mirror, showing you habits or trends in your life that you might want to rethink or change.  This type of feedback is vital to improvement.

Want to know more about the five characteristics mentioned here, in terms of this research?  Look here.   

Introverts, Embrace Your Strengths and Network Like a Pro

Let’s just admit it:  The world is skewed toward extroverts and it adds an extra challenge for introverts.  Being an extrovert married to an introvert, I’ve had my eyes opened to how this affects people.  (For the record, introversion is a preference for the inner world and thoughts, which is where introverts get their energy and where they process things. It’s often used interchangeably with shyness but the two are not the same.) The world is, however, finally starting to see that introversion has its benefits, as evidenced in the recent popularity of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.

Networking and connecting with others in social or quasi-social settings is an extroverted activity and it’s critical in many, if not most, fields.  It can be exhausting, even prohibitively so, for introverts.  There are some useful strategies, however, that will help introverts manage these events and realize their benefits.  They include:

1.     Appreciate your introversion.  It’s not a weakness.  It’s a preference.  Many times, it is even a strength as it may make you more predisposed to listening and observing things that the more talkative might miss.  At events where you need to connect, seek out one conversation at a time and ask questions.  This will help you budget your energy reserves and connect with others because it displays your interest in the other person.

2.     Reach out first and try pre-introductions before events.  If it’s possible, use social media to connect with a few people who might be at an event to ease the way.  Let them know that you are looking forward to meeting them, which will make it easier when you actually do.  If that’s not possible, practice being the first to offer a friendly contact when you meet someone in person – those old standbys:  a smile, your name, and a nice handshake – because everyone responds well to this.  Then you can use your introvert strengths (see #1 above) to wow them. 

3.    Recharge your batteries.  An introvert friend once told me at a conference that she was going up to her hotel room for an hour because she was “extroverted out.”  This was a great idea because it gave her quiet time to power up internally and prepare herself for more  events to come later that day.  Use the time you need to recharge after these types of events and you will feel better about them.

Click here for more information about these tips and happy networking!

There Are Really Only Three Interview Questions

Professional recruiters tend to believe that there are really only three interview questions.  They are:

Can you do the job?

Will you love the job?

Can we tolerate working with you?

George Bradt, author of The New Leader’s Playbook, will tell you more about those questions and how to prepare for answering them here.

Job Searching Advice from the Founder of LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become a major player in job searches.  Not surprisingly, its co-founder, Todd Wasserman, has some insightful tips for anyone who is job searching and some of his advice runs counter to come classic career advice.  He says there’s no need to “find yourself” to find the right direction or position because your “true identity” is constructed, not discovered.  You certainly have some strengths and preferences for how you work, but your environment and experiences also influence you all the time.  Some self-knowledge is certainly helpful, but not the “be all, end all” that it’s been made out to be.  So you can stop trying to figure out what color your parachute is and start figuring out if you like where it’s taking you. 

Another piece of advice he offers is being able to explain what value you bring to an organization in very specific terms.  You are competing with other talented individuals, but what makes you different from others? 

Want to know more?  Find Wasserman’s eight tips here.  

Five Things Interviewers Look for in a Great Job Interview

It’s the time of year when many of Gwinnett Campus students are getting close to graduating and may be looking for new jobs to go along with their shiny new UGA credential.  So this is the first in a series of posts that will help you in a job search process, whether you do it now or later.  Check back regularly for more tips or get the updates sent to your email address by signing up to the right in the box that says, “Enter your email address.”

Have you been in the work world a long time and think you don’t need these tips? You may need it more than anyone because job searching and interviewing is a skill.  If you haven’t used that skill in a while, a refresher will really help your chances.

In a recent post, CEO Matthew Swyers describes five things he looks for in an outstanding job interview and they apply no matter what your field, from sales to social work to education.  Find them here.  

Why Be a Networker When You Can be a Connector?

We’ve heard lots of advice over the years about networking and its importance to leadership and career development.  While I would never deny that relationships are important to leadership, there may be an even better way to build them than networking, and that is connecting. 

Many networking events are about what you can get out of them, so they can be a bit self-serving, but connecting is about what you can do for others.  Are you very curious about lots of topics, have high energy and are comfortable with meeting new people (or at least willing to work through discomfort of shyness)?  Then you may be more of a connector than a networker.  You can use those abilities to help out those you connect with, which in turn builds relationship in less of a self-serving way that networking might. 

How can you connect?  One way is to join groups, clubs and organizations but only those that pertain to what you love.  Learn as much as you can and get to know people you meet, which should be easy because you have something in common.  Give thought to how you might help them and who in your contacts list might help them, too.  And then do some connecting.  People remember this and it helps build great relationships with them. 

If you work in a competitive field, you don’t have to sell out your own interests to connect.  Use good judgment to not hurt yourself in the connecting process  – if you’ve got your eye on a job opening, connecting doesn’t mean you have to call all your contacts to advertise this position to them, too.  Connect people without thinking about immediate payback, and you’ll find over the long term that you get more back than you ever could have dreamed. 

Want to know more, including what connection advocates like Malcom Gladwell (The Tipping Point) and Keith Ferrazzi (Never Eat Alone) suggest?  Find out here, in the article from which this summary was derived. 

Does your resume tell your story?

Whether you are actively searching for a new job or satisfied with your current position, it's always good to keep your resume or CV updated and polished so that it is ready.  Opportunities can happen very quickly -- an impromptu conversation with a senior colleague at a conference or event, often when you're not "in the market" -- and it's so easy to let accomplishments go by without being noted in your professional record.  You don't want to be scrambling to update and refine when you get an unexpected, "Hey, send me your resume and we'll talk more!" request.  January is a good time to do that update and, as you do, a question to ask yourself is whether your resume says enough about who you are, your values, and what you bring to prospective employers.  We've all been told to keep our descriptions brief but it's important not to edit so much that you lose context.  Check out this interesting piece with an example of a resume makeover that better tells a candidate's story.