In an era of digital transparency and data mining, the game has changed for job seekers in the world today. Here is a look at the ramifications, both positive and negative, from hyper-transparency.

1. HYPERTRANSPARENCY
By: Douglas He Image via Scott Wilkinson (Wikimedia)
The Impact on Social Media on the Job Hunt

2. Image via bpsusf (Flickr)
Once upon a time, gaining employment
was all about putting your best foot
forward when you decided it was best.
Once upon a time, the only time an
employer could judge you, was if
you chose to be seen.

3. Our identities in work and family were separate
and well-defined…
Image via PublicDomainPictures
(pixabay) Image via Catherine Scott (Flickr)

4. Image via xJason.Rogersx (Flickr)
“Social media is a key player in the job search process today.
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ allow employers to
get a glimpse of who you are outside the confines of a résumé, cover
letter, or interview [… effectively blurring the boundaries of personal
and professional]” –Jacquelyn Smith, Forbes

5. Image via andercismo (Flickr)
Image via johnscotthaydon
(Flickr)
Image via svartling (Flickr)
Image via dbctuning (Flickr)
Image via methodshop.com
(Flickr)
“80% of HR
professionals use
online reputation
information as part
of their hiring
process” –Dan
Schawbel, Forbes
“70% [of HR
professionals] had
rejected a job
candidate due to
what they found
online” –Dan
Schawbel, Forbes

6. Image via renatotarga
(Flickr)
“the Internet … is threatening, at an
almost existential level, our ability to
control our identities; to preserve the
option of reinventing ourselves and
starting anew; to overcome our
checkered pasts.” –Jeffrey Rosen, New
York Times
Once upon a time, we could
control our carefully
segmented identities; we
could preserve and mould
our public perception and
reputation… a
reputation, which is a critical
criterion to be hired.

7. Image via Dave Delaney
(Flickr)
Image via Solo (Flickr)
“college students [are] ruining their online
reputations with inappropriate comments,
photos and videos. With employers using
social media to screen candidates, it’s more
important than ever that new graduates clean
up and protect their online identities.” –John
Millen, Reputation Group
Today, everything you
said online, even as an
impressionable and not
yet fully developed
teenager; can and will be
dug up.

8. Image via publik15
(Flickr)
“the Internet is shackling us to everything
that we have ever said, or that anyone has
said about us, making the possibility of
digital self-reinvention seem like an ideal
from a distant era.” –Jeffrey Rosen, New
York Times

9. Image via equinoxefr (Flickr)
If people don’t – CAN’T forget
anything we have ever done … can
they ever forgive?
“With little control over how
employers use social media
checks, job seekers should keep their
privacy settings high and their
networks active.”
–Suzanne Bowness, Globe and Mail
”there are also firms out there who
make vetting candidates … their
business. [They]assemble dossiers of
plusses (honors, awards, charitable
work) and minuses (references to
drugs, explicit photos, evidence or racist
or sexist attitudes) on potential hires
-Meghan Casserly, Forbes

10. Image via Vadim Guschin
(Wikimedia)
“We’ve become a nation
of digital scarlet
letters.”
-NBC
When it becomes harder and harder to
forget, a second chance becomes virtually
impossible. For many working age people
today, the first step of finding a job is
doing their best to cleaning up their
digital past.

11. Image via Unhindered by Talent
(Flickr)
Some people (including Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard
Law Professor) are now lobbying to create terms of
digital expiration. This would mean that after a
given time period, online actions of a person would
be wiped completely from every database.

12. Image via Sergiu Bacioiu
HYPERTRANSPARENCY
The phenomenon of an era where personal and corporate
reputation relies heavily on public perception, and opinions of
one person passed onto another.
In short, it is an age where everything you do online can be
tracked and recorded- where everyone is scrutinized as a
movie star would be
-Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

13. Image via User: Sven (Wikimedia)
With social media
merging the personal
and professional lives
of every job seeker out
there,
hypertransparency
presents a unique set
of opportunities and
threats.

14. Image via robynejay
(Flickr)
For the job-seeker, one ill-
advised post or picture could
cause a running train wreck
through one’s reputation and
integrity in the eye of the
employer.

15. Image via
Guacamoliest (Flickr)
“Those of us who exert the
necessary effort to maximize our
digital reputations will be
rewarded: opportunities will find
us. Those of us who don't will
miss out.”
-Michael Fertik, Harvard Business
Review

16. Image via Pickersgill Reef
(Flickr)
Your social identity doesn’t have to be something that
must be hidden. It can be your most powerful tool in this
age of hypertransparency. It can be your ticket to
standing up and standing out.

17. Image via rosswebsdale
(Flickr)
“Your social media presence can be much more than a
'walled garden‘, accessible only to your most trusted friends
and family. This suggests that a completely new set of
strategies, such as establishing transparency, personal
brand and authenticity, are fast becoming the keys to success
in today's competitive job search.”
-Daniel Gulati, Huffington Post

18. Image via geralt
(pixabay)
For the employer, this is the
golden age for capitalising on
data mining, to produce the most
effective hires. Finding an
applicant’s social identity is
equivalent to finding what they
are really like … behind the CV
and the flashy formal wear.

19. Image via Nit Soto (Flickr)
“By now, many employers think
that who you are online is
more revealing of your character
than a résumé …that means
keeping your LinkedIn profile
updated, setting up a
Google alert for your name, and
using Twitter strategically.”
-Vivian Giang, Business Insider

20. Image via lemasney
(Flickr)
However, it is important to keep in mind that the
effect of social media is largely dependent on the
nature of the position required.

21. Image via kindofadraag
(Flickr)
“Justin Bieber may have 23
million Twitter followers, but he’s
definitely not the best guy to do
my online marketing. There’s a
whole lot more to it.”
-Chirag Nangia, Reppify

22. Image via Kykl Roventine
(Flickr)
In fact, in most cases social media influence and
digital reputation is only a piece of the puzzle.

23. Image via Douglas He
(LinkedIn)
Personally, I
discovered and
began using social
media during the
birth and rise of
giants such as
Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram.

24. Image via PublicDomainPictures
(pixabay)
I am fully committed to seamlessly
merging my social identity and
professional brand. I fully intend to
mould a strong reputation to my
advantage when it becomes my turn
to enter the workforce.

25. Image via Kroyer (Flickr)
I’M READY FOR THE AGE OF HYPERTRANSPARENCY.
ARE YOU?

26. Image via PublicDomainPictures
(pixabay)
Image Credits
All images are licensed under “free
to use, share or modify” and can be
found from Google Advanced Image
Search.
Images are sourced from sites
including Flickr, Wikimedia and
pixabay. All of these images are
licensed to be distributed and
modified in a non-commercial
setting.

27. Image via rappensuncle (Flickr)
References and Articles Used
http://www.businessinsider.com/your-tweets-are-more-important-than-your-
rsum-2013-2
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/your_future_employer_is_watchi.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-gulati/put-forth-your-virtual-
be_b_1508067.html
http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2007/03/13/6346015-the-penalty-a-digital-
scarlet-letter?lite
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/five-
ways-to-be-a-smart-social-media-user-in-your-job-hunt/article7195188/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/02/28/the-reputation-
economy/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/04/16/how-social-media-can-
help-or-hurt-your-job-search/
http://yoursocialmediascore.com/downloads/b_repmanagement.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-
t2.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/06/14/social-media-and-the-
job-hunt-sqeaky-clean-facebook-profiles/2/
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10716368.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/15/twitterviews-
resumes/1919305/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020375040457717303199181489
6.html