Social Media is hurting Young Peoples Career

Social Media is hurting Young Peoples Career LinkedIn 8 Facebook Twitter 5 Google+ Job hunting for Generation Y is far from straight forward. Not only do they have to impress with their résumés and in interviews, but they now have to pass  an out of office test â€" one that perhaps many aren’t aware they’re even taking. The dawn of social media has meant that parts of our lives that were kept  out of the workplace are now public knowledge (if your privacy settings up to scratch that is).Why Social Media is Hindering Young PeopleA  study carried out by CareerBuilder  in 2012 found that out of 2,300 recruitment professionals, nearly 40% use social media to screen applicants. Another piece of research along similar lines  by the New York Times found that 70% of those asked have not hired someone because of what they found while screening them online.Those less than flattering tweets about an old boss that was particularly disliked or the Facebook picture of them, drunk and practically naked are no  longer private jokes between friends. But do young people realise? Well not according to a survey by Findlaw.com; only  29% of young social media users (18-34) have posted a photo or status/comment that they worry could affect their career prospects. So around 70% of young  people seem to be blissfully unaware of the damage they are potentially doing to their careers by being careless online.But are young people just completely ignorant of the impact their behaviour on social media could be having on their professional life? Or is there  something a little more complicated behind these figures?That’s very hard to gauge.This generation has been brought up with Facebook and Twitter as part and parcel of their lives. Ever since they hit their teenage years (often even  younger), they have been updating their profiles via social networks at least a few times every day. At that point those pictures of a drunken house party  are seen as a sign of popularity or the provocative pose is seen as merely a show reel of their attractiveness. So it’s unsurprising, if after graduation  they aren’t aware those types of pictures â€" even if taken a couple of years ago â€" are maybe affecting their ability to land a job.Things that used to be kept in private photo albums or sealed away in the part of mind not used in the office are now easily available to employers. Some  members of the older generations reading this can maybe imagine the damage that could have been done to their careers if they’d lived the sixties,  seventies or eighties through the internet. Though we’re straying a bit into the right and wrong, fair or unfair, territory here, it is an interesting  thought to consider nonetheless.Equally it is a possibility that young people are caught off guard that their Facebook profile is actually more likely to be screened than their LinkedIn  profile â€" 65% to 63%. The account they created with the sole purpose of impressing an employer is bypassed in favour of an in-depth look a t your ‘private’  life.There’s also the issue with the difference in values and idea of what is acceptable and not. A twenty-something applicant thinks a house party (apologies  for the repeated example) is great fun; a forty-something employer thinks it is evidence of irresponsible behaviour. A young applicant may think a photo of  themself smoking marihuana is their business â€" an employer might, but almost certainly will, deem it an undesirable quality. And the list goes on.Why Social Media is Helping Young PeopleSocial media can just as easily have a positive impact on a young person’s career prospects. The digitally savvy generation of today are in the perfect  position to manipulate social media to their ends. If they are prepared to think outside the box when applying for jobs social media becomes a  valuable tool in their arsenal â€" a way to skip ahead of older generations. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!We hate spam too. Unsubscribe any time. There are numerous examples of social media being utilised by people who want to get ahead in the careers game. Take Matthew Epstein for instance, he was  young and had been blocked at every turn in his hunt for a dream job so what did he do? He created a YouTube video which went viral on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. He got invited to  interviews with both Google and Apple; a perfect example of why young people’s comfort on social media, and online in general, can be a real positive.The fact that social media is being used to screen them is probably not something that sits well with young people. However, if they pre-empt the almost  inevitable search they can sculpt their profiles to be exactly what they their potential employer wants to see. And let’s face it young people are far more  likely to have caught onto this possi bility than older people are.Even if they struggle with that, most young people are wise enough to have updated their privacy settings to lock down their profile from any prying eyes.  This is something that older users of social networks might not be savvy enough to do â€" leading to the tables being turned as they are now hindered by  social media.People under the age of 30 are far more likely to be active users of any social network than someone over 30. That’s hardly ground-breaking research â€" it  is obvious. Although so much of this debate is focused on the damage a reckless user can do to their prospects, social media users could just as easily  find their activity working in their favour.In the same survey referenced above by CareerBuilder, 29% of those surveyed had found something that had caused them to hire a candidate. A selection of  the reasons cited were a good feel for the candidate’s personality (58%), great communication skills (49%), candidate was creative (4 4%) and well rounded,  showed a wide range of interests (51%). These are things that perhaps an older candidate is not as likely to be demonstrating on their social profiles â€" if  they even have them.By no means was this article intended to be conclusive in either direction. Whether social media is definitively a positive or negative for young job  seekers is fairly subjective â€" after all it depends how clever they are at using it. Though, it does appear that social media’s role will only grow in the  employment market over the coming years; so this is an area that perhaps needs to be explored (especially with the current rate of youth unemployment) in  more depth.