Social media is playing a more critical role in the recruiting process on a daily basis.
That means aviation hiring managers, responsible for recruiting talent for their flight departments, have a tremendous responsibility foisted upon them.
He or she should be integrating a social media search into their recruiting process.
Why?
Because it’s a great way to see how the potential new hire present themselves professionally. Looking at someone’s social profiles (if they’re public) is also a great way for someone to decide whether the candidate might fit within the organization’s culture. This can be assessed just based on the content and tone of a person’s posts.
How Social Media Can Both Help and Hurt You
According to a CareerBuilder survey, more than half of employers who research potential job candidates on social media said that they viewed content on applicants’ pages that resulted in their not being selected for the position.
In addition, the annual Social Recruiting Survey data highlights that 93% of hiring managers will search for social profiles before making a hiring decision.
It means that if you’re an aviation job candidate, you should be extra vigilant about the images, content and videos you’re posting online.
You also need to be wary of others tagging you in content.
Even if you think you’ve deleted negative or distasteful content, you never really know that it’s truly gone, as anything that gets posted is, from that moment on, in the public domain.
Of course, as a candidate, you might also discover some positive benefits to using social media.
The choice between hiring you for a position over another candidate could very well be decided because one of the two finalists had a Facebook page dedicated to his passion for flying, while the other’s page was filled with requests to play internet games such as “Candy Crush.”
Interestingly, a survey by HR recruiting software “Jobvite” revealed that information by prospective candidates about volunteering with a charity left 65% of recruiters with a positive impression of the person.
Three Common Sense Ways to Use the Internet to your Hiring Advantage
1. Google yourself
Yes, there are more than one billion pages in Google’s vast network of websites.
And, yes, you will always get a host of information that isn’t relevant, but searching for any references to your name on at least the first five pages of Google could pay off.
Make sure you look for your full name, any former names and nicknames.
If you have an Instagram or Twitter “handle” like @yourname, search for that too.
And remember, there are three main search engines within Google itself: a Web search engine, an images engine and a video engine, which is YouTube. Look for any references to yourself on all three engines, whether you yourself posted them or a friend or family member did.
Hopefully, you’ll find positive information (such as philanthropic groups you belong to) that will help assist a recruiter or hiring manager during the hiring process. But remember, HR recruiters and hiring managers who are conducting reference checks can also find negative content related to arrests and lawsuits.
Here’s a article in the USA Today that will give you more pointers on how to Google yourself.
2. Weed through aviation-industry specific websites
Over the last decade, a number of social-related aviation websites and online communities have popped up that allow user comments and questions related to articles.
One example you’re probably familiar with is NBAA AirMail.
If you’re a user of that site, check to see if you’ve posted any comments and, if so, look to gauge the tone and content of your post.
Were you giving someone helpful insight, or sharing your negative opinions about a company or the industry? Unfortunately, not all online content can be deleted, so be prepared to address your comments in an interview later on.
3. Change the privacy settings on your personal social media sites.
Most aviation professionals these days are pretty internet-savvy, and it seems like most people have at least one or more social media subscriptions, such as LinkedIn or Facebook.
You should be aware that if you’re posting social platforms such as Twitter, anyone can view your posts. Also, if you have a Facebook account, be sure to check your privacy settings and click on the “who can see my stuff” tab.
Keep in mind that if you comment or “like” or post anything with a globe icon next to it, then your posts are viewable to the public at large.
It’s important to manage your privacy settings so that only close friends can see your posts. Additionally, if you’ve got a lot of “friends” on Facebook that are more like “acquaintances,” you can set up special “groups” with which to share certain posts and images.
Here at API, our goal is to get to know you as a person and as a professional.
Our very thorough screening process allows us to match great talent with our clients’ needs. We often use social networking platforms to review a candidate at a high level, but count on our thorough screening process to evaluate whether one of our candidate’s will match our clients’ needs.
Here’s more information specifically related to posting on LinkedIn, as this business networking tool is a great way to represent your personal brand in a polished, professional way.
Though we do not use LinkedIn as a primary recruiting tool, we recognize that many of our API Registered Professionals have LinkedIn accounts. We often crosscheck the information our registrants have shared with us against the information they’ve posted online.