When you hear people talking about making a career change, you probably imagine someone with 10-20 years under their belt. Mid-life career changers get a lot of attention, but did you know that the phenomenon is common in the younger generation as well? 

A recent Gallup report reveals that the millennial generation is the most likely to switch jobs. 21% of millennials say they’ve changed jobs within the past year–– more than three times the number of non-millennials. Young professionals considering how to make a career change can often make a radical shift in trajectory simply by moving to a new industry. 

With six in ten millennials open to new opportunities, how can you distinguish yourself from the competition? Updating your resume and LinkedIn are important steps, but many young professionals are forgetting about their greatest liability: social media. That’s where LifeBrand comes in–– our affordable solution can help you solve potential problems with your social media in a matter of minutes. Read on to learn why you should be prioritizing the role of social media when finding a new job.

A Harsh New Reality 

A 2018 CareerBuilder study shows that companies are using social media to screen candidates more than ever. Of those polled, 57% of employers didn’t move forward with a candidate based on their social media profiles and 48% of companies keep checking up on employees even after they’re hired! 

But despite what you might think, most employers aren’t looking for reasons not to hire a candidate. Most are looking for evidence of a professional online persona –whether that involves a clean, creative profile or positive comments made by other people about the candidate. In fact, 37% of hiring managers in the survey said that they found information to support the candidate’s qualifications. Yet all it can take is one compromising post to ruin your prospects. Let’s take a look at the most common reasons for being passed over due to social media: 

1. Drinking and drug use. Remember those frat parties during college? Your buddies might have posted one too many questionable photos on Facebook. Posting information about drinking and drug use specifically deterred 36% of employers in the study. 

2. Discriminatory comments. Anything that could come off as hate speech will hurt your chances of getting hired. Whether it was something you wrote yesterday or ten years ago, 31% of employers say they have passed over a candidate due to negative comments related to race, gender, or religion. Think back. If you’ve ever made a racial slur or a sexist comment online, they could come back to haunt you. 

3. Bad-mouthing past employers or colleagues. Amidst the stresses of work (and bad bosses), it can be a relief to blow off steam through a frustrated post. But you never know who will be looking at that post and making judgments about you ––even years down the road. A rule of thumb is to avoid talking about your job on social media altogether and talk it out with a friend or family member instead. You don’t want to be among the 25% of candidates who get overlooked because of badmouthing.

4. Lying about qualifications. Resume writing is an art and there are many ways to present your employment history. But lying about your qualifications could cost you. Since there’s so much information online, it’s often a simple matter to verify whether a candidate is telling the truth about whether they graduated or who their past employers were. Don’t try to rewrite your history ––27% of employers say they didn’t move forward with a candidate due to a deception. 

Finding a New Job With the Help of LifeBrand

Reviewing and deleting unhelpful social media posts is as important to your job search as having a good resume. But going back through years of history across multiple accounts leaves a lot of room for error. Are you confident that you can find every single potentially damaging post since you opened your accounts? 

At LifeBrand, we want to help you work smarter, not harder. Using our artificial intelligence technology, you can quickly scan all your accounts to review all the potentially “bad” posts. You decide whether to keep or delete each post on a case-by-case basis. 

To see how it works, try a free scan today!