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Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

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141–150 of 281 posts

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#141
post #11

as a millennial its almost impossible to apply for a job that doesnt quietly scan through social media trying to find you. My last job sent a linkedin request from the HR director, but after my first week he lamented that I "didnt seem very social" on the internet. My current job went so far as to browse the TLD for my email address for clues to any seditious or non-conforming behaviors.

Did you apply for a social media marketing position?

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#142
post #41
post #20

Career and social life should be completely and utterly separated. The content on your social media page should have no bearing on your ability to perform the job at hand. Quite honestly, an employer that even looks at your social media profile to do a sort of casual "character check" on you, is not one that you should want to work for in the first place. Especially true in the realm of IT, where there just simply ar…

> an employer that even looks at your social media profile to do a sort of casual "character check" on you, is not one that you should want to work for in the first place. Companies aren't going to ignore "free information available at your fingertips" about the candidates they hire. For example a problem candidate may have easily accessible "red flags" on their social media such as racist stuff and drug use. They co…

"Companies aren't going to ignore "free information available at your fingertips" about the candidates they hire."

I do. I often interview candidates in my role as a software developer at my company. Finding them on social media would be trivial. But I don't look for them there. I don't care.

I don't even want to know their politics before giving my recommendation and I'm deeply suspicious of anybody who thinks they would want to know that information.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#144
post #132

Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media? I use Twitter to follow interesting celebrities and industry professionals. (Adam Savage Mythbusters fame, pro climber Alex Honnold, several notable iOS programmers). I rarely interact with any of them, but I find out about lots of interesting things. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends around the country. I can keep my dad updated to wh…

For myself, social media (Facebook) makes me upset for several reasons. Besides the usual reasons of seeing disturbing news and advertisements, being manipulated by the system, and the creepy feeling of being digitally analyzed for profit, there exists a more serious problem. I have friends from all over the spectrum, from poor to wealthy, simple to intelligent, young to old. However I find something in almost all of…

When I want to reply to posts like that, I ponder until I can think of something to say that is short, simple, and kind. My goal is not to correct them but rather to build a relationship of trust. If they learn to trust me, they are far more likely to join my side on important matters.

Also consider that most people don't have your writing skills and will get frustrated when they try to engage in a debate with you in writing. Most people are more comfortable when speaking (especially face to face) rather than writing. That's why most of the real political discussion continues to happen offline, even today.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#145
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an employer that even looks at your social media profile to do a sort of casual "character check" on you, is not one that you should want to work for in the first place. Companies aren't going to ignore "free information available at your fingertips" about the candidates they hire. For example a problem candidate may have easily accessible "red flags" on their social media such as racist stuff and drug use. They co…

The issue is the false positive/false negative rate and a lack of data in general. Without any measure of how 'good' the info gained via social media is, the data is essentially useless. For large companies like Walmart, they can garner this data and see if it correlates at all. Google used to use GPA in their hiring decisions, but dropped it as it did not correlate to how good an employee is. For example: drug use.…

Yes but if you post pictures of yourself holding up signs at a KKK rally then a company hiring you is a PR liability for them if the could've checked and didn't.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#147
post #99
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people there exists a news headline that will ruin their day or at least disrupt their morning e.g "Young child decapitated at amusement park" or "North Korea moves one step closer to nuking Western US" or "Bacon Gives You Cancer". Facebook heavily encourages people to write and share headlines like this (true or not) and then promotes them prominently in your news feed. This can take a heavy emotional toll…

Funny, I probably saw all three headlines you mentioned, here on NH. I just don’t click on ones likely to upset me.

HN is a social media platform, albeit a niche one. Which is why I think the article was rather overblown, clickbait hyperbole.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#148
post #20

Career and social life should be completely and utterly separated. The content on your social media page should have no bearing on your ability to perform the job at hand. Quite honestly, an employer that even looks at your social media profile to do a sort of casual "character check" on you, is not one that you should want to work for in the first place. Especially true in the realm of IT, where there just simply ar…

What should happen and what does happen are two completely separate things in reality. If performance actually mattered I'd venture to guess 95%+ of people would be fired immediately. Maybe I'm cynical about it in my advancing years, but kissing ass pays off exponentially more than producing good work (unless you own your own business).

In my experience for whatever reason a lot of software engineers consider normal functional communication with their peers and managers as ass kissing. Is it because of being introverted?

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#150
post #74

> If you’re serious about making an impact in the world, power down your smartphone, close your browser tabs, roll up your sleeves and get to work. I found this pretty pretentious.

A major component of productive work is communication. I can spend 20minutes on a phone with a friend who is an expert in an area and learn a lot more than doing hours of research. Thinking that work is just coding is shortsighted.
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