Edit Your Facebook Profile for Hiring Managers’ Eyes

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

Your Facebook profile can be made visible to people who haven’t joined your network yet. If you spend time and fill it in, hiring managers and recruiters can learn more about you. Your profile info also helps Facebook find new people to suggest you add to your network.

The more accurate you are in your profile, the more accurate Facebook’s suggestions are for who else you can connect with. Making sure your profile is filled out is worth the extra five or ten minutes.

In order to make updates to your profile, click the Edit Profile button on the top-right side of your profile page.

Edit your Facebook profile photo

In Facebook, your profile photo is attached to every communication you send and is considered basic information in your privacy settings. The reason is that Facebook is first and foremost a visual platform.

If you’re actively seeking employment, use your LinkedIn photo as your Facebook profile image. Why? Because unless you’re interviewing for a position at a nightclub as a dancer, you want your first impression on Facebook to be as professional as possible.

Edit your Facebook About Me section

When you click on the Edit Profile button and scroll to the bottom of the page that appears (in the Basic Information page), you find a box called About Me that’s just waiting for information about you. Your About Me section should serve a very similar function as your LinkedIn profile summary, in that it communicates who you are professionally and what makes you unique.

The text you enter in this section appears publicly and may be the only prose a hiring manager conducting some preliminary screening may read about you on Facebook.

If you’re actively seeking work, paste a copy of your value statement in the About Me section of your profile. If you want to add a little bit more personality or personal information as well, lead with a professional statement of who you are and then conclude with a more personal statement, perhaps even mention some interests or hobbies.

Edit your Facebook education and work history

Be sure to completely fill out your education and work history within your profile. Hiring managers are looking for inconsistencies (after all, some people lie on their résumés), so if they see that you’re consistent with your résumé in several places, they’re more likely to believe you.

Edit your Facebook Philosophy section

Don’t fill in your religion or your political views in this section. However, sharing who inspires you and what your favorite quotes are can be powerful ways of differentiating yourself.

Spend time thinking about your role models and quotes that stick with you.

Edit Facebook profile settings

Your Facebook profile also allows you to enter information about the types of music, books, movies, and TV shows you like, as well as your favorite sports teams, activities, and interests. Don’t be afraid to fill in this information.

Sharing it helps round out your personality in the eyes of a hiring manager. Just keep in mind that your selections should be appropriate; use the “Would I talk about it in the office?” test to be sure. Revisit these parts of your profile with your career in mind.