Facebook: The 21st Century Resume

We live in an era where our social lives become headlines for the public to read. Every event, thought, and memory is captured and posted on the internet. In college, Facebook is the ultimate playground for sharing pictures and information. Your ego growing larger with the number of “friends” you accumulate and the amount of comments you receive on your posts. The late night and weekend activities are displayed by photo albums and comments. To us, it is senseless fun, but to employers, it is the factor behind hired or fired.

In today’s society, employers are looking deeper than your resume to find out what you truly represent. The paper resume days are behind us. Now, employers move to social networks to find out who you truly are through the information you publicize. Employers are realizing quickly by looking at your photos that the “outgoing” and “multitask” skills you claimed on your resume may be something different than what you led on.

Most professionals would give the advice to change your Facebook name, put up privacy settings, or delete your Facebook entirely. But I say let us take a different approach. Why not embrace the power of the Facebook resume. Think about it, a piece of paper with some general information about you can only go so far. But, if presented professionally, a profile full of informative and interactive photos, interests, videos, intriguing posts, etc. can actually work as a wonderful source to your advantage.

Let us take the time to do some spring cleaning and talk about a few revising tips toward a beneficial profile page. To begin, you must put yourself in an employer’s shoes. Revise and delete all information that does not represent you well and replace it with information that does. Of course you should deter from displaying a false persona, and instead simply highlight your true professionalism.

How to go about this? Instead of posting links to funny Family Guy YouTube clips, try links to some of your favorite marketing articles or blogs. This shows you are career driven and taking initiative to learn outside of the classroom. Display photos and videos of your accomplishments, community service experiences, or unique talents. We are marketers after all, so we understand the idea of displaying value. Let us not forget this when it comes to our Facebook resume.