Jobseekers and Employees: Be Careful What You Tweet!
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The whole world is atwitter about Twitter (pun intended). One of the reasons why social media tools like Twitter are so effective is that information can reach very large audiences almost instantaneously.
While there are constitutional guarantees of free speech in the US and elsewhere, there are certain things that are safe to tweet and others that are not. This is especially true if you are corporate employee or a jobseeker looking for a new opportunity. While this ought to be intuitively obvious to most, younger and less well-experienced individuals may not know the “unwritten rules” pertaining to office workplaces and job searching. To that end, there is a wonderful post on the Resume Bear website(@ResumeBear) that lists 20 things that jobseekers and employees should never say on Twitter. Although some of the examples and recommendations are comical and funny, getting fired or not getting a job because of something you might have said on Twitter isn’t.
Until next time....
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!
The advent of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Linked In have been a boon to recruiters and human resources (HR) professionals. Social networks represent a vast and easily-accessible source of job candidates whose professional credentials and personal information are readily available to determine whether or not they may be potential new hires. While the effectiveness of recruiters and HR professionals to source new talent is debatable, I contend that there is nobody more qualified than employees at a company to identify prospective new employees who may bring value to an organization. A number of forward-thinking companies have realized that the best way to find “right fit job candidates” is to mine the social networking contacts of their existing employees. To that end,
Since 2007, approximately 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs have been eliminated. The recent consolidation in the industry, e.g., Merck-Schering, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech suggests that many more life sciences jobs will be lost over the next year or so. Typically, to avoid law suits and possible discrimination claims, most companies will layoff a mixture of experienced and entry level employees that cover the racial, religious and age spectra. For those of you who may not know, Americans who are 40 and older constitute a “protected class of employees.” In other words, companies that layoff employees cannot disproportionately give pink slips to employees 40 years of age or older. This law was enacted because older employees typically have higher salaries and have accrued more benefits and vacation time than their more junior counterparts and eliminating them can drastically cut costs. While most companies are careful to layoff a mixture of junior and senior employees during large layoffs, a quick perusal of the demographics of employees who lose their jobs reveals that many of them are older, more experienced workers. Sacrificing a few entry level employees (to prevent any red flags) is worth it to the accountants who charged with cutting costs and orchestrating large corporate layoffs..gif)
While I have never been layed off, I understand how awful and painful it must be. After all, unlike people who were fired for cause or otherwise, most people who are layed off are performing well but they simply became too expensive or expendable to remain with a company facing financial exigency.
The recent spate of corporate layoffs has forced many people to reconsider what their next career move ought to be. While looking for another corporate job (similar to your old one) is the most obvious thing to do, the likelihood of quickly finding a new job in these economic times is remote. That said, now may be a good time to consider leaving confines of the corporate world and striking out on your own! Based on my own personal experiences, this can be a very frightening and overwhelming undertaking fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. But, not to worry! 
