With a very large number of companies now vetting the social media accounts of their applicants I was wondering how its seen if someone has no social media presence at all?
Anecdotally, both as a hirer and hiree, I'd say the answer is no, it's not important. I can't think of a time a social profile has made or broken a hire on my end, and I've been hired despite having a locked IG, a mostly blank linkedin, no FB or snapchat, and a twitter that's mostly me griping unattractively.<p>Grain of salt, though, I'm in a field where a portfolio is required upfront, so that replaces a huge amount of signaling that might have to come from other places.
Yes, I definitely think so. I investigated this for my school newspaper, six or so years ago.<p>Eighty percent of recruiters/hiring managers google you before inviting you in for an interview. (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-p-joyce/job-search-tips_b_4834361.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-p-joyce/job-search-tips_...</a>)<p>Read the story about Pete Kistler: <a href="https://brandyourself.com/info/about" rel="nofollow">https://brandyourself.com/info/about</a>
I'd consider it a bonus (if they dont have a Facebook, they're probably not wasting much time on it).<p>There are enough people who use social media but hide their friends list, posts, tweets, etc. from all non-friends, so if you're concerned you can set up a profile which you don't use and keep your (non-)activity hidden.
I can speak for tech:<p>No it doesn't. What got me jobs:<p>- Good, to the point cover letter (what job are you applying for? why are you interested in it? invitation to view your resume and invitation to get on the phone to explore more).<p>- Good resume - tailored for the job (not super customized, just suitable for the title / responsibilities).<p>- Got a place online they can check out previous work? Huge bonus points. There's still plenty of competition for people who've actually built stuff. And, talking about an interesting project is far more fun than talking about past experiences, especially if it is a recent / current project.<p>- Social Media: I'd say not having a profile is better than having one.
I have a blog and no employer has ever looked at it, even though I list the blog on my resume.<p>I walk into interviews and the interviewer often starts off by asking something basic such as "Do you know what object oriented programming is?"<p>My best known essay is "Object Oriented Programming Is An Expensive Disaster Which Must End." The essay was discussed here on Hacker News:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8420060" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8420060</a><p>Anyone who Google's my name will discover this and many other essays. Yet I've never met an interviewer who knew that I wrote these essays.<p>When I started the blog I kept it strictly professional and strictly about technology. But as the years went by, I realized that no employer would ever look at it, so I started posting political things. At first I worried that employers would see this and avoid me because of the politics. But no. I routinely walk into job interviews and the people who talk to me have never looked online for any information about me.<p>Seriously, in the last 10 years I've had 6 jobs and 30 freelance clients. None of them every looked me up before I arrived for the interview.
I think, in Tech, it doesn't matter because we tend to be more privacy concise. Some of co-workers have never created any social media and accounts and nothing shows up for them when you search for them.<p>But in other fields it might be different story. My wife is a recruiter for a large hospital. She has told me that while this is not official but usually if an applicant doesn't have social media profile, they usually move to bottom of the list. Most of the recruiters are young there, and they find it weird/suspicious that someone is not easily searchable.<p>My wife's recommendation is to at least, have a profile with picture and hide everything else.<p>However, for senior positions, they don't usually care so much for profiles as most of applicants applying for those positions don't really have any social media profiles.
Dear god I hope not. I guess I am sheltered as an engineer? I would say no to anyone so fast if they asked for a Facebook or twitter account, and I never have heard of this. Do you have sources on this being a prevalent practice? Have you been asked?<p>Edit: unless you mean Linkedin or something like github as a social account?
I do not have any social presence in popular social networks like facebook, instagram and mainly linkedin by choice. I do have a personal static website though and a github profile.<p>From my experience, the quality of people reaching out to you particularly not from linkedin is very high. I personally had made a decision of rejecting employers who insist on having a linkedin profile. But surprisingly, so far no one has ever asked me about that and all my employers (present and past) were ready to hire me even though I do not have a visible social presence (read linkedin).<p>But, in extreme circumstances when you badly need a job, this thought of having a vibrant social presence haunts you (I have gone through it). But since it is a conscious choice, it is a decision I'm very happy about.
I think it does harm you not to have a profile, but only indirectly. Employers <i>will</i> search for you. Having no profile means you're missing out on an opportunity to make an impression before the interview - candidates with posts about things they find interesting in job-related fields, or status updates that make them look like sociable, interesting people, will benefit from that. Having no profile puts you behind those people.<p>Mind you, having a bad profile will get you rejected, so no profile might be better in some people's cases.
Anecdotal evidence: I was at a rugby weekend dads/sons thing. You meet other dads from all walks of life, everything from navy captains to surgeons. One evening, one dude, apropos of nothing whilst banging on about his successful real estate business said that he would not hire someone who did not have a facebook account. I was like 'wat? really?'.
From my personal experience, no.<p>None of my jobs have ever asked for it and if they went looking and found nothing, I still got the jobs.<p>Honestly if an employer ever asked me for it, it would be a clear-cut sign that I don't need to work there.
It depends on the specific company, but lots of companies <i>require</i> a Linkedin profile to submit an application and some companies go as far as requiring an FB profile. And in cases where social media profiles are optional, applications which provide them are viewed slightly more favourably than applications which don't provide social media links. /anecdata
Dear god, I hope so.<p>If a social media presence (or disclosure of a social media identity) is a condition of employment at some particular (or peculiar) firm, then I think the only recourse is that I should prefer to be a scrivener and that I should prefer not to.
I get several job offers from all around the world through Linkedin weekly. Colleagues from the same office who are equally skilled and have a similar experience, but do not have LinkedIn and other networks, get 0. Go figure...