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Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

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Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#11

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #5
mattnewton wrote: post #2

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? Edit: unless you mean Linkedin or something like github as a social account?

unless you mean Linkedin or something like github as a social account? Those count, unfortunately. But I'm skeptical that a "github resume" matters much. LinkedIn seems to matter a lot more strictly for getting offers from recruiters, though.

> LinkedIn seems to matter a lot more strictly for getting offers from recruiters, though.

One of the great reasons not to have a LinkedIn account. Those aren't offers any way. They're just shotgunned spam to users with > 10% keyword matches.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#12

Post by RickS »

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#13

Post by rlv-dan »

hollaur wrote: post #8

Yes, I definitely think so. I investigated this for my school newspaper, six or so years ago. Eighty percent of recruiters/hiring managers google you before inviting you in for an interview. ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-p-joyce/job-search-tips_... ) Read the story about Pete Kistler: https://brandyourself.com/info/about

This can swing both ways. If you deliberately build a professional social presence, blogging about coding, LinkedIn resume, and so on, then it's likely positive, but if you publish drunken photos and post rude twits then it probably will hurt your job chances.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#14

Post by RickS »

metalmanac wrote: post #6

It depends on the specific company, but lots of companies require 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

>lots of companies require a Linkedin profile to submit an application and some companies go as far as requiring an FB profile

It baffles me that orgs do this despite the insane signal it sends to candidates. You're basically filtering for people who are either 1) so desperate for work that they'll allow their employer to violate their privacy indefinitely 2) playing weird games where they have second versions of themselves set up with fake content (I knew people who did this in college.)

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#15

Post by mirimir »

handojin wrote: post #9

Dear god, I hope so. 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.

See http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#16

Post by onion2k »

I think it does harm you not to have a profile, but only indirectly. Employers will 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.

Mind you, having a bad profile will get you rejected, so no profile might be better in some people's cases.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#17

Post by sli »

RickS wrote: post #12

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. Grain of salt, though, I'm in a field where a portfolio is required upfront, so that replaces a huge amount o…

It varies pretty wildly. A friend of my mother applied for a job doing clerical work at the city police station, and one of the conditions of hiring was surrendering her Facebook password. For some reason I'll never understand (she didn't need the job, just wanted something to do during the day), she took the job.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#18

Post by palerdot »

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.

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).

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.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#19

Post by watwut »

sli wrote: post #17
RickS wrote: post #12

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. Grain of salt, though, I'm in a field where a portfolio is required upfront, so that replaces a huge amount o…

It varies pretty wildly. A friend of my mother applied for a job doing clerical work at the city police station, and one of the conditions of hiring was surrendering her Facebook password. For some reason I'll never understand (she didn't need the job, just wanted something to do during the day), she took the job.

Having nothing useful to do whole day long term is highly unpleasant and I would argue even unhealthy. She probably needed a job, through not for money.

Re: Ask HN: Does lack of a social media presence harm employment chances?

#20

Post by Razengan »

sli wrote: post #17
RickS wrote: post #12

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. Grain of salt, though, I'm in a field where a portfolio is required upfront, so that replaces a huge amount o…

It varies pretty wildly. A friend of my mother applied for a job doing clerical work at the city police station, and one of the conditions of hiring was surrendering her Facebook password. For some reason I'll never understand (she didn't need the job, just wanted something to do during the day), she took the job.

> one of the conditions of hiring was surrendering her Facebook password.

Is that even legal? How? Why?

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