Pay Attention to the Facebook Timeline – Recruiters are Watching

http://www.corp-corp.com/blog/recruiters-watching-facebook-timeline/

What exactly is Facebook Timeline? If you don’t already know, employers are increasingly turning to popular social network, Facebook, to recruit candidates. Timeline is a service that allows you to tell recruiters who you are. And with Facebook’s latest Timeline utility, job seekers have a whole new way to present themselves to recruiters. The static information in your profile will communicate where you are currently working, which school/university you attended, etc, much like a resume. You can choose to include life events and add pictures and graphics into your Facebook profile. The emphasis is on life events that portray whatever it is that you want recruiters to know about you.

How you can use Timeline effectively

Up-to-date professional information:

As you may be using Facebook primarily to interact in an informal capacity, it is possible that you may not have updated your professional information. Timeline’s profile field highlights your job title and present employer. Ensure that your employment history is updated and that you present professional accomplishments impressively.

Choose privacy options with care:

Go through the privacy settings carefully given the fact that Facebook changes its privacy options very quickly. As Timeline will make it quite easy to view your complete Facebook history, you wouldn’t want recruiters to come across embarrassing, politically incorrect or cheesy memoirs from the past on your Facebook wall. Update privacy options to ensure that such information can be viewed only by friends.

Choose Likes carefully:

As this new Facebook profile emphasizes your Likes, choose them thoughtfully and check privacy options to see if you restrict who can view your Likes. Think twice about liking something distasteful or someone controversial.

Opt for a good cover picture: The new Facebook profile allows you to add a cover photo on top of the page, in addition to your profile pic. Opt for a cover picture that represents or says something positive about you.

Photo Courtesy:SocialMediaRomania on Flickr