Clean Your Social Media | Esquire Recruiting

Hi everyone and happy Monday! I’m sure you have social media – everyone does now! Social media is a great way to connect with friends and see what they are up to. In the professional world, social media can be a way to scan potential new hires, so it is important to make sure your social media represents the best version of yourself. Why is this important? 57% of Americans who use social media have posted something that they regret. Even if you think your social media accounts are clean, here are a couple of tips to make sure you don’t have to sweat it when HR does a sweep of your accounts.

Google yourself! This is a great place to start even if you think that your social media is clean. You want to make sure that the searches don’t uncover anything from your past that doesn’t paint you in the best light. You m
The power of archiving photos: On Instagram, it is possible to temporarily “delete” or archive photos. This way, you don’t have to delete photos if you are on the fence.
Take a look at your Twitter: Twitter makes it easy to type whatever you’re thinking and post without much thought. You’ll want to look back through your Tweets (go far back) to make sure that everything is something you wouldn’t mind your boss seeing. You will also want to look at what accounts you’re following. Make sure across all platforms that the content that you engage with also reflects your beliefs
Take a conservative approach to what might be considered “offensive” or “inappropriate”. Try to look at your accounts from an outside perspective. You may think one of your posts is hilarious given the backstory with all your friends, but social media posts can be misconstrued very easily. Again, you’ll want to go through who you are following and the content you are liking.
Take a minute before posting to consider who will be seeing your post. The power of social media is incredible because you can write a message and within 30 seconds it will be posted for the world to see. With that responsibility, you will want to take a minute before hitting “send”.

These are easy ways to prevent a red flag in the hiring process. HR teams across companies and even universities take this very seriously. In 2017, Harvard rescinded the admissions offers of at least 10 students who posted obscene memes to a Facebook group. So, take a scroll through your social media accounts because you never know who might be looking down the road!

Searching for a new position? Check out our open jobs list!