Social media certainly offers more and more opportunities to express ourselves and even when it comes to our careers. It means new networking opportunities for professionals, new career opportunities and other positive things when used properly. When not, it could end your career. Oversharing, improper display of behaviour, these are all mistakes done by so many employees. Make sure you’re not part of that group and follow the advice below.
You Complain About Your Boss
We are not always happy about our jobs or bosses but putting it all out there for everybody to see was never a wise decision. Even if you guard those posts from your boss, even if you adjust your privacy settings wisely, you don’t know who might come stumbling upon those and show them to your colleagues or boss. And even if you think that your job is fully protected now, you will suffer the consequences later when you will be switching jobs. Employers tend to take a closer look at what type of content you post online, even if this seems a bit like stalking. But, in the end, they only want to see what type of person they will be hiring. If they like to fight online or complain too much, this is a big red flag for potential employers and they generally don’t want to take this risk.
You Share Your Latest Job Offer
You have no clue how bad this might look in potential employer’s eyes. Job offers are confidential, most of the times and just because you are informed regarding that job offer, it doesn’t mean that you are allowed to break that confidentiality. You’re virtually telling your employer that you’re unreliable and not worth their trust. This might make potential employers to revoke their job offer and you will most likely remain unemployed for some while. Never post about who is offering a job and who. This is a private matter that you and only you should be aware of. You never know who might see the post and report to your potential employer.
Plagiarizing
While there are numerous misbehaviours that you could display online and damage your career, an immense one is plagiarism. In the business world, this is completely unacceptable and it can follow you like a pest. While a rant or tow might be easier to get away from, you will be followed throughout your whole career by plagiarism. This is saying to all your potential employers that you’re incapable of dealing with your tasks and also lazy. These are “qualities” all potential employers run away from. Of course, they want competent and eager employees and plagiarising is not telling this story about you. Give credit when you use another persons’ content: quote them, give them rights for whatever picture you post on your social media platforms if you’re not the one who took it etc.
Using Texting Language
Using texting language in places where everybody can see is no big deal, right?! Well, wrong. It might seem like not a very big deal but that screams that you lack professionalism and simply, proper literacy. Plus, it might tell your potential employer that you’re lazy as well. We get that using texting language is faster, but it will certainly damage your employment chances in the future. A recent survey showed that almost 70% of the employers see with a bad eye a candidate that uses this type of language on their Facebook Profile, LinkedIn profile and so on. Use proper spelling and grammar online, as an adult.
Crude Comments
Any comment meant to offend a person of a category is certainly looked upon negatively by potential employers. You already know that employers use social media and other tools to do a background check on each potential employee and if they’re welcome with crude comments on social media, your employment chances drop enormously. Racist comments, inflammatory comments and generally rude comments are things that you should avoid online drama and tragedies. Avoid offensive jokes to any other questionable online reactions as they will most likely follow you in the future.
Insulting Your Customers
Just like complaining about your boss or job is bad behaviour for potential employers, complaining about your customers is equally bad. This especially if you work with the public on a daily basis. This is your job and people have different behaviours and needs. You shouldn’t mock those. Just like waiters shouldn’t mock their clients for the tips. This is bad, tasteless online behaviour and will never bring you something good, career-wise. You might even get fired if you do such things, thus analyse this with care before putting yourself and your company in a negative light.
Bragging About Alcohol Use
We all love to have a glass of wine from time to time, you might even have a couple more since nobody is judging your private life. but If you brag about such things online, you might end up losing your job as it also puts your company in a negative light. Especially if you work in respectable fields like teaching or research, you will most likely get fired for such things. You represent the institution and you are the image of the school, college or kindergarten that you are employed at. Parents might avoid those institutions if they discover that most of the posts of a teacher are of alcohol. There were many similar cases and you can’t afford to take such risks, even if it is only a glass of wine.
Clear Display of Drug Use
You might like occasional drug use but don’t brag about it online. Don’t display support for legalizing even if you do support such measures. It will negatively impact your career and employment chances in the future, so why take the risk? Given the fact that many companies have frequent drug use screenings, you are taking a too high risk.
These are some ways in which your online activity and social media use might damage your career. Be wise with what you post online and keep your career sheltered.
