Best Fit Forward

What If An Employer Asks for My Facebook Password?

I've been asked this question a lot lately, especially after being asked this question by a reporter at the AP. You can see the story here.

It's technically illegal for employers to ask -- as it's against Facebook's terms of service to share your passwords or login with someone else's information. But it's unlikely that an employer would be prosecuted since you are giving them permission to login to your account.

That said, in a job search -- if you want to get hired, I think it's important to look like you've nothing to hide. In general, you want to be friendly, approachable, and presentable.

Here's a two step process you can use to address the question:

1. Ask what the employer's looking for when they look at Facebook. Don't ask "Why" as that may come across as aggressive. Instead say, "What will you be looking for?"
    
   In many cases, employers who have asked for Facebook login information have been law enforcement professionals -- looking for evidence of gang involvement or illegal opportunities.
   
   In others industries, employers may want to see your Facebook profile so that they can see how your out-of-work activities demonstrate what you want to do for work. Want to be an event manager? Do you help organize activities for your friends? In this case, your involvement can actually help you and work in your favor.
2.  Politely sidestep the password access information issue by offering an alternative way for the employer to get the information.
   
   You could say for example, I'm very careful with my passwords -- and assume you'd want me to be careful with my company e-mail account if I come to work for you. How about I friend you -- or one of your colleagues instead -- and you can take a look around.
   
   (This then gives you the added bonus of time, you can go back in and clean up information if you need to.)
   
   Want more insight on what employers are looking for? Check out the advice I gave reporter Jennifer Doll when she gave me (temporary) permission to snoop around in her Facebook and Twitter accounts. This piece gives a full overview of my advice on what to include -- and what not to include online.

How Do I Get Started on LinkedIn?

 

After years of being asked to join LinkedIn, I've finally done it. Any suggestions on how to get started?  C. L.

Great question. As LinkedIn is a full service networking site, there are many ways to use it -- from making new professional connections through LinkedIn groups and Q &A discussions to finding jobs and requesting referrals.

If you're new to LinkedIn, the first thing you should do is make sure you've got an amazing profile that employers can find. Studies show that up to 86% of employers using social media to find candidates for jobs use LinkedIn so I recommend you have the best profile possible.

Bonus: LinkedIn is one of the 15 most accessed sites online as tracked by Alexa.com, so any information you post on the site and make public will help you be found by major search engines -- and prospective employers.

Here's a quick list of easy steps you can use to optimize LinkedIn that I created over at StartWire.com. Let me know if you find this to be helpful -- and good luck!

Is it Better to Have Many Friends or a Few Good Ones?

My friend Jim and I are having an argument over networking? Jim says it's better to be an open networker on LinkedIn; I say it's better to follow LinkedIn's suggestion -- and only connect with people I know well. Which is the better strategy?

- K.L.

There's no right answer. It's up to your own level of comfort, and depends on what purpose you'd like to use your network for.

That said, my personal preference is to only connect with people who know you well. Why? If you get a job lead through a networking contact -- and they don't know you well...they cannot vouch for you.

It's not who you know that matters -- it is whether or not they are willing to speak up for you.

In my opinion, that's what matters most. "I recommend you for any job that you are qualified for," is a pretty weak reference. So Is "I don't know her."

 

To Know or Not To Know: Which is Better

This weekend, I spoke with a job seeker who -- three weeks ago -- applied for a job listing online for a job that he saw at Borders. He hadn't seen the closing signs, or the news coverage that Borders will be laying off over 10,000 employees nationwide. And even if he had, he knows that companies hire all the time -- even if they are laying off people in other departments.

My friend spent over an hour applying for the job, then dropped by last week to discover that they were closing within three days. There were no jobs to be had.

"I'm annoyed. I'm frustrated. But I'm glad I know now that I won't be hearing from them."

There are some aspects of the job search you can't control: It isn't always possible to know when a job is posted -- "for real" or when it's posted to comply with internal hiring policies or marketing plans of keeping up appearances.

That said, there are some tried and true -- as well as emerging and new -- ways that you can ensure you get better feedback on your applications. Wouldn't you rather know than sit and wait to hear? Here are three ways to do this:

1. Follow up.

I recently interviewed Google recruiter Jeff Moore, and learned that -- in his opinion -- one of the biggest mistakes that candidates for jobs at Google make is not following up and assuming that Google isn't interested. He cautioned, "Don’t take yourself out of the game." He also said he's frequently hired candidates who initially applied for a job he didn't hire them for the first time.

2. Get the inside scoop.

Use your social networks to figure out who you know inside the company, and -- if you've got a connection -- let them know you've applied. If not, don't be afraid to call the company, anyway. My friend Angela got several interviews simply by figuring out who the hiring manager was for positions, calling at night and leaving a voicemail with a two sentence summary of her skills and experience.

3. Sign up to get feedback. 

Since December, I've been working with StartWire, a free site that helps job seekers organize their job search -- and get feedback. One of the secrets not often shared when you apply for jobs, is that many companies actually provide you with updates on the status of your job application -- but you have to log back into the website where you applied for the job to get the feedback. StartWire checks this information automatically for you at over 2,600 companies when you tell them where you've applied.

Personally, I think it's better to know when you are in the running for a job -- or not -- then to sit and play the waiting game. You?

The Keywords You Need To Find the Right Job

Have you spent hours searching job boards for position listings?

 

Do you know what you want but get too many search results when you look for it?

 

Did you know employers and hiring managers are very sophisticated when they look for candidates, and know just the right key words to use?

Here are a few examples of how recruiters scout candidates 

C++ java -jobs -samples intitle:resume OR inurl:resume AND Cleveland
this is an example of a Google Search for software candidates in Cleveland

("business analyst" OR "systems analyst" or Analyst or BA) and (Retail or POS or "point of sales") and (ecommerce or e-commerce or web or internet) and (inventory or SCM or "supply chain") and ("crystal report*)
this is a search string from a recruiter challenged to find candidates for Business Analyst positions with experience in Crystal Reports. This search string is one that can be used inside job boards

 

Today, we're going to help you create your own string. You don't even have to learn the language.

 

I'm working with the recruiting industry insiders who built the products used by 70% of the Fortune 500 to find candidates. We are going to give you a customized string for your job search.

After years of training companies to find candidates, my friends Chris Forman and Tim McKegney founded StartWire, a private social networking platform, to help job seekers.

 

If you join StartWire and complete a profile that share your interests--ideal job title, industry sectors of interest and location; Chris and Tim will provide you with your own custom Boolean search string you can use for your own needs.

 

Registering on StartWire takes less than five minutes, and you'll get your search string within 48 hours--at the latest. Sound good?

 

To your success,

Chandlee

 

(P.S. StartWire will help you find keywords to search for the right job, if you need help finding keywords for your resume, check out this post I wrote on how to find the best keywords through a tag cloud.)

Cross-posted on Secrets of the Job Hunt. Photo by Cayusa.

 

Job Hunting Rules To Break (Or Why & How to Crowd Your Shadow)

I participate in the Career Collective, a community of bloggers who convene and give their takes on a singular topic once a month. Up this time: outdated job search beliefs or rules that are made to be broken.

Given that it's Groundhog Day and hundreds of journalists and on-lookers are gathered to tell us if a singular groundhog, Punxsutawny Phil, will see his shadow or not, I'm going to talk about what I call the "shadow myth": The idea that you are only presenting yourself accurately in your job search if you conduct your job search on your own--without help.

You know the oft-quoted statistic on networking, but I'll repeat it anyway: A majority of non-entry level job offers are the direct result of networking. A job search conducted entirely on the couch or behind a computer monitor is less likely to yield results.

Research or not, it's very tempting to conduct your job search on your own for a number of reasons: you can preserve your privacy, avoid the "did you hear from them yet?" question from others, and leave the feedback to your perspective employer instead of others. If you're a private person or someone who doesn't like to share everything with everyone--this strategy can feel good. If only it worked.

Unless you are currently employed and have a highly unique and sought after skill, the private job search has a lower likelihood of success. You need others to give you leads and perspective. After all, who's the first person you look for in a group photo? Yourself. To paraphrase the late Walker Percy, "you've spent a lifetime with yourself, don't you know what you look like?" Somethings are just hard to do on your own.

Most people you meet will develop a first impression of you in less than 30 seconds, an employer--on average--gives you less than 15. It's worth getting feedback from friends, mentors, and colleagues so that you know how you appear to others. And as I mentioned, since the people you know can also share the leads that will very likely lead to your next job--it's a no-brainer.

If Punxsatawney Phil sees his own shadow today, there will be six more weeks of winter. Disrupt your shadow by getting other people to help you in your job search, and you may shorten the time it takes for you to land your next gig.

In my post last month, I announced that I am working with StartWire, a new social collaboration platform that allows job seekers to get help from a closed private network of trusted friends that they create. (Your tweets may go into the Library of Congress, but StartWire status updates stay inside the system and will never be visible on any social graph.)

StartWire is based on the concept that a few people who have your back can expedite your job search. On average, most of us know about 600+ people--and a lot of what we know about them isn't on LinkedIn, Facebook or any other online website. Job seekers can use StartWire to share their interests, ask questions of friends, and get feedback on their resume and job search targets--all in private. It's like a buddy system for your job search.

StartWire is now in open beta. Consider this your invitation to check it out and let me know what you think. (You can also contact me if you have questions or want to learn more.)  But most of all, I hope you won't see your shadow this winter--and wish you every success.

Photo by J. Stephen Conn.

Here are additional posts on the topic of job hunting rules to break from my savvy colleagues and fellow members of the Career Collective:

• Juice Up Your Job Search, @debrawheatman
• It's not your age, it's old thinking, @GayleHoward
• Want a Job? Ignore these outdated job search beliefs @erinkennedycprw
• Job Search Then and Now, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes
• Break the Rules or Change the Game? @WalterAkana
• The New: From The Employer's-Eye View, @ResumeService
• Job Search: Breakable Rules and Outdated Beliefs, @KatCareerGal
• Job Hunting Rules to Break (Or Why and How to Crowd Your Shadow), @chandlee @StartWire,
• Shades of Gray, @DawnBugni
• 3 Rules That Are Worth Your Push-Back, @WorkWithIllness
• Your Photo on LinkedIn - Breaking a Cardinal Job Search Rule? @KCCareerCoach
• How to find a job: stop competing and start excelling, @Keppie_Careers
• Be You-Nique: Resume Writing Rules to Break, @ValueIntoWords
• Modernizing Your Job Search, @LaurieBerenson
• Don't Get Caught With an Old School Resume, @barbarasafani
• How Breaking the Rules Will Help You in Your Job Search, @expatcoachmegan
• Beat the Job-Search-Is-a-Numbers-Game Myth, @JobHuntOrg
• 25 Habits to Break if You Want a Job @careersherpa