Recruitment tip for candidates #101.

As recruiters we are tasked with sourcing great candidates to place with the clients we work with. Simple as that. We go into partnership with our candidates to support them from day one.

Behind the scenes, clients will say certain things (that we’ll never repeat) but we as we hear their words, and experience their behaviour, it continues to assists us to intrinsically know what they will and won’t hire – or more importantly what will put them off before they have even interviewed the person.

Often candidates will ask us to review their CV – and 99% of the time it’s fine. What they don’t ask us to review is their social or online presence and to completely honest, your CV will mean NOTHING if your social media presence lets you down.

By this I mean your Linkedin – it’s a business platform, which is different to Insta, TikTok, Facebook or any personal website you’ve created. So think about your audience and if you are looking for jobs, consider putting your other accounts on private for a little while.

Pouty pics, revealing pics, photo’s with the seat belt across you, dark group shots in a bar where no one can work out which one you are, or a photo of your pet – are all ok and no one is saying you can’t have that pic – but be prepared for some employers (in fact more than 90% in my experience) to make an assumption about you based on your decision to use that photo.

Having dealt with lovely candidates who have missed out on roles with very reputable businesses because of the employers negative view of their social presence, I know it can hurt – they’re not bad people, they’ve just been viewed incorrectly in that moment.

So take the time to really review your social presence – maybe ask a trusted friend, ex-boss or mentor to google you to see what they find.

This is not about conforming, it’s about setting yourself up for success in your career.