The Interfolio Blog

We talked last week about the importance of social media in showcasing your work as an academic. At the risk of sounding redundant, we'd like to point out another great example of why this remains as true as ever.

Over on the OPEN forum, Guy Kawasaki described how you could go on the offensive using Facebook in their job search.  While Facebook can be a good platform to highlight your professional side, it still is mainly focused on the personal lives of users and not their careers.

First, the article points to two main trends: "First, most organizations are either already looking at candidates’ Facebook profiles, or they are going to start soon. (How many business owners are doing this now?) Second, people who are worth hiring either have a social-networking profile on some service or will soon—indeed, recruiters may already think that a candidate who doesn’t have a profile is hiding something, disconnected, or clueless."

What's the suggestion?  Don't be defensive and "careful."  Go on the offensive.  Think about your target audience, whether it's a graduate program, a university hiring committee, or a non-academic job, and what they want to see, and put it right in front of them so they don't have to "come across it" in their background checks.