Full Transcript
Serena Gilbert:
But the reality is, is that about 87% of people found their jobs through networking.
Jeff Thompson:
Job Insights, a podcast to help you carve out your career pathway, and enhance the opportunities for gainful employment.
Jeff Thompson:
I thought that was really cool that I was starting to connect up and build a network of people that were in like-minded professions.
Jeff Thompson:
To help you navigate the employment world, and give you job insights to choose the career you want.
Serena Gilbert:
Do not be afraid to just ask. The worst thing that they can say is no, and then you’re no worse off than you were without asking. But what if they say yes?
Jeff Thompson:
You can find the Job Insights podcast on blindabilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities Network, with hosts Serina Gilbert, and myself, Jeff Thompson. You can contact us by email at jobinsights@blindabilities.com. Leave us some feedback, or suggest some topics that we cover. On Twitter @JobInsightsVIP. And check out the Job Insights Support Group on Facebook where you can learn, share, advise, and interact with the Job Insights community.
Serena Gilbert:
A lot of people do not realize exactly how much employers take a look at your social media presence, and how it can seriously impact your viability as a candidate.
Jeff Thompson:
The Career Development Center, I highly recommend checking them out because they’ve already developed networks, and you could tap right into them.
Serena Gilbert:
You would not want an employer to see that you said something derogatory on Facebook. Don’t be like Roseanne and take Ambien, and tweet something out.
Jeff Thompson:
There went a career.
Serena Gilbert:
Did you know that every tweet is archived with the Library of Congress? Every single tweet.
Jeff Thompson:
Uh-oh. Now please welcome Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson with Job Insights.
Jeff Thompson:
What’d you call it, the virtual resume?
Serena Gilbert:
The virtual resume.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Job Insights. I’m Jeff Thompson, and all the way from Colorado we got Serina Gilbert. How are you doing, Serina?
Serena Gilbert:
I am doing excellent, Jeff. How are you?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m doing great. We got the Polar Vortex coming over us tomorrow, so better stay inside and work on my networking through the internet instead of getting out and about.
Serena Gilbert:
I know that’s hard for you because you will talk to everyone that you see.
Jeff Thompson:
Right? Yeah. Serina, this is a great topic, networking. To me it used to mean what I thought was your interaction with other companies, other people in the industry with like-mindedness, people that you keep in your Rolodex, so you have a resource of people, a source of information that you can gain from to enhance your opportunities. Now with the internet, and the reach that we have with social networking, I think the opportunities today are endless. And I think it’s a tool that you can’t do without, but I also think that’s a tool that you have to handle with care.
Serena Gilbert:
When I think of networking, I honestly … it’s not a positive connotation for me. I’m like, “Oh God. I have to go out and talk to strangers, and put myself out there.” But the reality is, is that about 87% of people found their jobs through networking. So either they knew somebody, or they had previously contacted an employer and made their presence known. It’s the number one way to find a job because employers frankly don’t want to have to post their job, really do a thorough search of God knows how many applications. They would much rather find somebody through referrals from current employees, or somebody who’s maybe reached out to them and told them about their skills and abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
So get the word out, tell your family, tell your friends, let people know, right?
Serena Gilbert:
Yes. If you’re gonna be looking for work, and I know it sounds a little awkward sometimes, but make sure that everybody knows that you’re looking for work and the type of work that you’re looking for. Because you never know who they might know, or maybe they work for a company and they’re like, “Hey, you know, there’s some internships coming up this summer. How would you like to apply?” Take every opportunity that can possibly enhance your … because you never know who you might be able to connect with that could possibly help you out on your career pathway.
Jeff Thompson:
Exactly, Serina. One of those is LinkedIn. This is something that a couple years back I filled out a profile, but I haven’t been paying attention to it until I started receiving emails saying that people are searching my LinkedIn profile. So pay attention to your LinkedIn profile. Do a little bit of housecleaning if need be. And it’s a good way to get your name out there.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah. Think of LinkedIn as like a virtual resume and cover letter for yourself. The basic parts of LinkedIn is it lets you put your work experience, companies you’ve worked for, connect with other people that have been a part of that same company, or even the same school that you previously went to. It also has an aspect of it that has professional groups that are specifically designed to help you network virtually.
Serena Gilbert:
So there could be groups, for example, I’m a rehabilitation counselor. There’s several groups that are specifically surrounding that topic of rehabilitation counseling, vocational topic, career development, things like that. Maybe you’re looking into programming or accounting, but there’s honestly a group for everyone on LinkedIn. It’s a way to put your professional best foot forward. It’s not designed to share funny articles or funny YouTube videos. It is definitely professionally driven to show what professional skills you have to offer an employer.
Jeff Thompson:
And the LinkedIn website is pretty much accessible I’ve noticed.
Serena Gilbert:
And so is the iOS app, actually, it’s pretty good. I’m actually impressed. There’s a lot to it, and I don’t check it all the time like I do Facebook and Twitter and things like that. But if I were job searching, I would certainly be on there a lot more to see what kind of connections I have that might be a good fit for what I’m looking for.
Serena Gilbert:
The other thing, let’s say you wanna work for Apple, just as an example. You could pull up Apple and see what connections are near you that maybe know you, and take a look at their experiences, and ask to become a connection with them. A lot of people accept them on there. It’s not as personal as a friend request. It’s just saying maybe this person wants to learn more about this company. So you can make a connection that way.
Jeff Thompson:
I really didn’t know what LinkedIn was really all about, but then I started looking into some more. I think it was about eight months ago, I went into it, and decided, “Okay, I’m gonna make sure I have a profile that’s representative of what I really do.” Because I didn’t do that before. And it’s, like you said, a virtual resume, a virtual profile. So I went in and set it up. I was pretty impressed because within a couple weeks, I had like seven, eight, nine, 10, 12 people. I thought, “Oh, who are these random people,” but when I clicked on them, and I read just a little bit below that they were in fields that were working all the way across the nation. I thought that was really cool that I was starting to connect up and build a network of people that were in similar or like-minded professions that I myself was interested in.
Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. And once you make those connections, let’s say, Jeff, you were looking for employment, or maybe you’re a college student, and over the summer you’d like to do an internship. A lot of people might wonder, “Well, that’s great that I’m connected with somebody from that company, but what do I do now?”
Serena Gilbert:
One really cool thing to do is you can email them. A lot of them put their emails on there, or even their phone number. It’s their professional phone number, usually. It’s not usually their personal information. But one really cool way to start networking that’s a lot less confrontational, I guess, than going to an old school networking group with 50 people in a room, is you can reach out to a person that works for a company that maybe you’re interested in, and just ask, “Do you mind if we set up maybe an informational interview? I’d just like to learn a little bit more about what you do, and how you got there.”
Serena Gilbert:
You would be surprised. People love talking about their careers. They love being able to mentor somebody who’s also interested in that field. Then it’s one-on-one. You could either do it over the phone, or maybe meet them at their place of business, to get a tour, and make even more connections. You would be so surprised with how many people would be willing to do that. Because you’re not asking them to give you a job or anything. You’re just asking to learn more, and that gets you out there very, very quickly.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. And when you get that one-on-one, that’s kind of like shadowing or role models. People in your community, such as if you’re in the NFB, ACB or other organizations, there may be people that are doing jobs similar to yours, just like on LinkedIn, but you have an opportunity to tap into to their daily routine. Because it might be something that you’re interested in, but if you do go job shadow someone, and find out, “This may not be for me.” Because the reality is, it’s a job nine to five, and is that what you wanna be doing? So it’s a good way to get some flavor of what it would be like.
Serena Gilbert:
And Jeff made a really good point. If you’re a member of maybe the NFB or ACB, like he said, or maybe any other type of organization, make sure that they know as well that, “Hey, I’m looking into work.” Learn about what other people do for careers. They might very well, even informally, do an informational interview with you, or be willing to help you get into a contact at a place of business that maybe you’re interested in. Do not be afraid to just ask. The worst thing that they can say is no, and then you’re no worse off than you were without asking. But what if they say yes?
Serena Gilbert:
I know that sounds super cheesy. I’m sorry, that’s just who I am sometimes, but if they do say yes, then that could really lead you on a pathway that could lead you to some success that you would like down the road.
Jeff Thompson:
Serina, another great resource is right on campus. Career Development Center is where you can go in and see what kind of jobs are available, what kind of opportunities for internships are available. And what kind of projections do they have in the market for the profession or career that you’re choosing? So it’s great resource right on campus. The Career Development Center, I highly recommend checking them out because they’ve already developed networks that you will have full access to, and you can tap right into them.
Serena Gilbert:
I think that is one of the most underutilized services that colleges have, and that students just maybe forget about sometimes. Because let’s face it, you’re a senior. You’re so close to graduation. The last thing you’re thinking about is making another appointment with another college representative. You’re just so ready to be done. I totally understand. But you paid all this great money for tuition and fees, and even the private colleges and for-profit colleges have Career Development Centers. Sometimes a dedicated job-placement person, whose job it is to help you either obtain internships or make connections with employers.
Serena Gilbert:
Don’t be afraid to attend the job fairs that they’re providing you access to because a lot of job fairs on the college campuses are looking for people just like you, and that’s what they’re at the college campuses. Because they want to hire college grads, or they want an intern that’s from that particular program. So if you’re not connected to that Career Development Center, you might not be alerted to some of those things that are going on.
Serena Gilbert:
In some of the smaller colleges maybe the department chairs handle some of the career development, but don’t be afraid to ask them as well.
Jeff Thompson:
The other thing is if you’ve been working with your state agency, that they have employment specialists there too. Now is a good time to make sure that you’re utilizing the services that your vocational rehab or your state services can provide from your employment service specialist. Because they are connected, and they’re used to dealing with companies, or they have relationships with other companies. They’ve been networking, and they have databases that they can draw from. So make sure you ask about that if they haven’t brought it your attention already.
Serena Gilbert:
So we’ve talked quite a bit about kind of some of that face-to-face networking you can do as well as LinkedIn. But one of the primary social networks I know that we’re all on are probably Facebook and Twitter. I wanted to chat a little bit about that because a lot of people do not realize exactly how much employers take a look at your social media presence, and how it can seriously impact your viability as a candidate when you’re looking into employment.
Jeff Thompson:
And they’re not necessarily going on to the social networks to look for bad. They’re looking for people to help their company. That’s why they’re hiring, they wanna get the best people. So they’re actually approaching this with a positive. You just don’t want something on there that just strikes them as being very negative. Your social network is kind of like your profile. It’s stuff that’s out there, and people are looking at it.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I mean, Jeff sent a great article, and tons and tons of statistics in there, but one of the things that stuck out to me was that they’re not saying, “Don’t have a social network presence. Don’t have social media.” Because that’s actually could possibly be a red flag to an employer. They might google you, or try to look up Facebook profiles and wonder, “That’s really weird that I can’t find this person.”
Serena Gilbert:
So there’s a couple of things that they think. “Are they trying to hide something?” Or, “Do they have some sort of really odd name on their social media?” That also could possibly poorly reflect on you as a candidate.
Jeff Thompson:
Another important thing when you’re on these social networks is the profile photo. The one that people see because people naturally look at those. If you don’t have one, have someone help you get a nice picture of yourself and put it up there. Because it does attract more attention if there’s not a photo than if there is.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, with Facebook especially, no matter how high you have your privacy set, there are two pictures on your profile that will never ever ever be private, and that’s your cover photo and your profile picture. No matter what you try, those will always come up when somebody looks you up on there. So the reason I bring that up is because for those of us who do have profile pictures, for me I have a picture of my son and myself for my cover photo, and then a picture of myself as my profile picture.
Serena Gilbert:
But there could be times when maybe you’ve chosen some pictures that might indicate that you do have a visual impairment, maybe you have a cane, or maybe you have a service animal. I’m not saying hide that fact. You can certainly have that in some of your more personal things that are privy to your friends and people that you want to see that. But perhaps for your public image, if somebody were to look you up, you might not want that to be the first thing that they see, and for them to have some preconceived notions about you.
Jeff Thompson:
Serina, you’ve made a great point. Go into your Facebook, clean it up. Make sure you got the right pictures on there. Remember, you’re looking for a job, you just don’t know who’s gonna be looking at this. And if you’re applying for jobs and getting your resumes out there, they might be looking themselves.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, and the other super important thing to remember, and a lot of people don’t realize this, and I frankly never thought about it until this happened to a client that we were trying to help to do some job searching. When you comment on Facebook pages, status updates, and maybe review a business or something like that, that information is 100% public. There is no way to take it away. Even if you delete, it’s never going away because somebody could’ve possibly screenshot it or something like that.
Serena Gilbert:
So when you’re commenting on, let’s say, a news article or something that’s particularly political in nature, somebody could possibly see that comment that you’ve made, and it might not paint you in the best light. You would not want an employer to see that you said something derogatory on Facebook, or maybe that paints a picture that’s not so positive for us. Maybe think twice about putting that on, especially a public page.
Jeff Thompson:
Now when you were talking about privacy on Facebook. Can you do that from your app, or do you have to go into the website.
Serena Gilbert:
When I locked down my account the best I could, I did 100% on the app. You go under the Facebook menu, kind of towards the bottom I think there’s one that says, “Show privacy shortcuts.” There’s a lot that you can change. You can even change it so that friends of friends can’t see things. You can even change who can friend request you, which sometimes can be helpful when you’re a part of a lot of groups.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And there’s a lot of groups on Facebook that can help you out. There’s the Job Insights group.
Serena Gilbert:
That brings up a really good point as far as the types of groups that are Facebook, and how they might impact your social media presence online. So we do have our Job Insights Support Group. We have chosen to make a closed group. We do that for a variety of reasons because we feel that our members our entitled to some sort of privacy when they’re asking those particular types of questions. But most importantly when a group is closed, people who aren’t in the group cannot see that you’re in that group.
Serena Gilbert:
I do have some other groups that are public because the nature of them it’s not as sensitive of subjects that we talk about. But when you’re in a public group, others that search you can see that you’re in that public group if they chose to because there is a groups tab on our profile pages that shows all the different groups that we’re in that are public, or maybe that somebody else has in common with you. So I bring that up for two reasons. Number one is that the employer might see, “Oh my gosh, this person’s in like six blindness related groups.” So they’re, again, gonna jump to some conclusions.
Serena Gilbert:
There’s nothing we can change about that, unfortunately, there’s no way to hide the groups that we’re in. But the other thing that’s more importantly is, how are you interacting with people in that group? Are you respectful? When somebody posts something, how are you responding to them? Because even though somebody might not be in that public group, they can see all of the posts, all of the comments. So just really be mindful of what you’re posting in those groups as well.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s good to know.
Serena Gilbert:
The other thing to think about with Facebook, I know I’m harping on this, I apologize. It’s not over once you get the job. There has been multiple occasions where somebody has posted something on their social media, and it has resulted in them losing their job because of what they posted. Maybe it was negative towards the employer. Maybe it was just not reflective of the company’s moral values. Lots of different reasons. So always be careful. Think twice about what you’re putting on social media, just in general.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, the world has changed. The stuff that you’re putting on social network is open to everybody, and companies have learned. And we said that before, that companies are looking at this. 70% of the companies that are hiring, are looking at social networking. Your presence is on there. It’s up to you to clean it up or keep it clean, and remember it’s not just this little hidden secret that’s going on. It’s not a club. It’s available to the entire world.
Serena Gilbert:
Especially Twitter. How many celebrities, Jeff, have you seen get in trouble on Twitter?
Jeff Thompson:
Six.
Serena Gilbert:
Don’t be like Roseanne and take Ambien, and tweet something out.
Jeff Thompson:
There went a career.
Serena Gilbert:
Very quickly. That was less than 24 hours. Yes, that’s an extreme example, and yes, she’s a celebrity. But Twitter is one of those social networks where there aren’t privacy setting. Everything you put on Twitter … Jeff, you’ll laugh at this. Did you know that every tweet is archived with the Library of Congress? Every single tweet.
Jeff Thompson:
Uh-oh.
Serena Gilbert:
You might have deleted it, but it’s still out there somewhere.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, and a lot of celebrities have the fun fact that people take snapshots of these before they can delete them in time. So just be cognizant that it’s real. Everything you put out there is available for anybody who really wants to look at it. They can look at it, and determine or make an assumption of what you’re like. So be aware.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I mean, I… Jeff’s probably gonna laugh at me about this one too, but that’s okay. Occasionally, I literally google myself to see what comes up. Because with my professional career, I’m kind of surprised to find out that I’m on quite a few websites, usually related to the school districts that I work with because I’m their partner with vocational rehabilitation.
Serena Gilbert:
I am also surprised to see exactly how many pictures kind of pop up, and that’s something you might want some sighted assistance with, but just different pictures that have been my cover photos and profile pictures, they end up in Google Images labeled with your name. So that’s kind of fun. Just remember things you put on Instagram, or Twitter, those might come up when you’re googling yourself too, which an employer will likely do either as part of a post-interview kind of narrowing it down kind of thing, or maybe even as part of a background check.
Jeff Thompson:
Wow.
Serena Gilbert:
Do you even wanna know how many websites you’re on, Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
It is quite interesting when you google yourself. I’ve done it, and I found out that I do a podcast.
Serena Gilbert:
Shocker.
Jeff Thompson:
It is really neat. But I’ve used that to my own advantage. Sometimes when I wanna find some information out, or something that I’ve done in the past, I can type in Enchanted Hills Jeff Thompson, and it’ll bring up something out there, and that’s what companies are doing. They’re actually looking for information about people so they can hire the best person. You could be that best person, so make sure that are aware of this.
Jeff Thompson:
Moving forward, just remember what you’re doing on the internet, what you’re doing on Facebook, Twitter, and in LinkedIn, polish the stuff up a little bit. It’s part of your resume. What’d you call it, the virtual resume?
Serena Gilbert:
The virtual resume. And they’re not gonna go back like 15 years or something. As part of our process sometimes we have occasionally looked up somebody on social media when we’re trying to decide between a couple of different candidates perhaps. It’s a very quick look. It’s not, “I’m going to click on every post that I see here.” It’s not, “I’m gonna scroll back to 2008, and see what you were up to.” It’s, “Do we see anything that’s kind of a red flag?” Just as a really quick glance over your social media type things.
Jeff Thompson:
Like they rescued six kittens from a fire, and good stuff.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, great stuff.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, we hope you guys have enjoyed learning a little bit about how to kind of manage social media, networking, but we also want to let you know that we’re gonna be starting a new segment where we answer questions directly from you guys. So if you want to submit questions, the best way would be to post them in our Job Insights Support Group page on Facebook. Again, you can find that just by searching Job Insight Support Group.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, I very much so enjoyed chatting with you as usual.
Jeff Thompson:
Likewise, Serina. Thank you for the information. I’m learning a lot. I’m gonna be busy cleaning up all my social networks from here on out.
Serena Gilbert:
How much do you have to delete from Twitter?
Jeff Thompson:
Not too much. I’ve always had a lot of respect. My mom was always on my Facebook and Twitter. I’m on Blind Abilities. My name’s associated with that, so I’m very aware of what I’m putting out there.
Serena Gilbert:
And speaking of Blind Abilities and Twitter, where can they find you, Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
Well, first of all, you can find this show Job Insights on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP. You can follow me on Twitter @KnownAsJeff, and as always you can follow the entire network @BlindAbilities.
Serena Gilbert:
Very nice, and you can find me at Blindy Blog, and that’s the same handle on Twitter and Facebook, and of course we’d love to have you in our Job Insights Support Group. We will be chatting with you guys later.
Jeff Thompson:
All right. As always, we wanna thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye bye.
Serena Gilbert:
Ba dum bum.
Jeff Thompson:
For those of you who want to find out more about Job Insights, you can check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com. On Twitter @JobInsightsVIP.
Serena Gilbert:
And don’t forget to join our Facebook support group, search for Job Insights Support Group.
Jeff Thompson:
And remember to check out your vocational rehab, your state agency, your state services for the blind, to see what they can do for you.
Jeff Thompson:
I wanna thank Chee Chau, Chee Chau, Chee Chau, for his beautiful music, and that’s @LCheeChauon Twitter.
Jeff Thompson:
I wanna thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
info@blindabilities.com
Thanks for listening.
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