It already seems like it was a decade back when a candidate would share a resume or CV with an average length, varying anywhere between two pages to eight pages. The Human Resources would go through the resume for education, experience, family background, responsibilities and call a suitable candidate for face-to-face interaction. Almost every resume now looks like a copy-paste of some template available on the internet. The interview process has undergone many transformations over a period. It is no longer a one-way monologue. The objective is to know more and share more, as the cost of one wrong hire is way more than the time spent on hiring a candidate. The 15 to 45 minutes of interview, however intense and in-depth, cannot bring out all the facets of a person. The interviewer gets to know only as much as is shared by the candidate. After all, an interview is not a natural setting.
Hence, there is a trend towards referring and validating the candidates’ claims against the information available on social media. Social media today has a broad canvas right from Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. Based on one’s likings, preferences, inclination, an individual may publish content on a social media platform. Some of these are professional networking forums while others are personal and non-business.
While finalizing the candidate, it is a good practice to check their social media presence. This does give an insight into the person’s social interactions, thought processes, perspective on various aspects of work and life. Some of the posts do indicate the individual’s social or political inclinations, causes which are close to their heart and its impact on the individual as well as work preferences. It is said that birds of the same feather flock together; this applies to people’s behavior on social media as well. The kind of company that the candidate keeps or has in the network, gives away a lot about the candidate.
While on one hand, the younger generation may be more inclined to share photos and videos or experiences, the older generation normally shares incidents, descriptions, events, books, poems, etc. The difference is in the speed and depth of what is being posted, liked and shared. Also, there are many who may not be very good with words but can articulate well through photos and videos. If one would like to scan for people skills, one can find a wide variety right from attention to detail, to tact/diplomacy, ability to speak up, humility, etc.
Scanning through social media is also a skill by itself. A mere word search or superficial viewing of profiles does not convey a lot. The recruiter should be social media savvy, connected with the right people on the network and be able to project an appropriate image of himself/herself and the organization, so that appropriate candidates surface in the searches. Social media is after all based on searches – what you look for, you get.
Today, there is a huge influx of fake news, fake posts and too many manipulations which does not project the right picture of the candidate. Basing decisions of hiring, without knowing the authenticity of the social media posts, can be a dangerous approach to hiring. In addition, there are way too many incidents of hacking of social media pages and forums. With the popularity of social media and awareness amongst candidates about the fact that hiring managers do refer to social media, has led to many people putting in a lot of effort to convey a carefully crafted image of themselves. In fact, some go to the extent of hiring professional advisors who help build a social media image. In such a case, reliance on social media posting may not be the right approach. Reading too much into the social media postings of the candidate can thus be very dicey
