As CISO for SoftBank IA, Gary Hayslip advises executive leadership and oversees enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy.
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Following my previous articles on developing a cybersecurity career, I want to discuss why your social media footprint is important. Ten years ago, when social media was in its infancy, there would have been very little need to be concerned. However, in today's hyper-converged global business environment, 70% of hiring managers search the candidate they are about to interview by reviewing their social media profiles, according to a 2018 CareerBuilder survey.
The cybersecurity field is highly competitive, and your profiles tell a story about you. Let's make sure you control the story.
To get started, do an internet search on yourself and inventory all of your social media accounts, including the inactive ones. I recommend closing inactive accounts first. Then, you should review your current social media accounts and look for pictures, profanity-laden posts or long rants on subjects that could be divisive, all of which you should consider removing. Some people have their accounts wide open to the world. Instead, a better strategy would be to keep only some things open to the public so potential employers can learn something about you, and then make the rest available only to friends and family.
You do not need to be fake. You need to be smart about building a personal brand for your professional career.
In building this brand, your profile image says a lot about you, so you should put the time and effort into getting several professional pictures done and then periodically changing your profile image. Think of your social media accounts as doors to enhance your professional growth. I write to, exchange comments with and mentor many of my followers on LinkedIn. Anything I publish on LinkedIn, I also share on Facebook, Medium, Twitter and Reddit. Use your accounts to drive your message and have fun meeting new people as you grow your network. One final point: Don't forget to put the link to your LinkedIn profile on your business card and your resume.
Now let's look at several social media platforms and review some basic ideas about using them.
• Facebook. Employers look at your Facebook account to see who you are outside of work. You don't need to hide your complete profile, but you should review the pictures and content you have open to the public. Make sure to update your employment and educational information and have those public. If you are applying to companies that have Facebook pages, it might be a good idea to "like" their page to show you are interested in them. If you like to write and have a blog, host a podcast, or share content, you should add this to your professional status updates and make them public as well.
• LinkedIn. Before networking on LinkedIn, you should complete your profile. You want to keep your profile professional, making sure to add your professional picture and biography as well as an introduction. A good hack to get started is to search for people you know in the industry and review their profiles to get a feel for setting yours up. Next, look at joining groups to get started in discussions and only connect with people you know. This will provide you a basic professional profile to which you can add content such as articles as you meet new people and get involved in the community.
• Twitter. On Twitter, it helps to create a biography using hashtag keywords because recruiters often conduct searches by using these keywords, but don't forget that — like with LinkedIn or Facebook — hiring managers will probably review your profile. You should follow experts and companies in your community, and you can demonstrate your knowledge on a subject, share other people's knowledge and join ongoing discussions. Twitter can be the platform where you let your personality, experience and thought leadership shine through.
• GitHub. If you apply for software development positions, it would be highly recommended to have an active account on GitHub or another code repository site and to include that profile on your résumé. You want to showcase your projects that are currently being used by the community and demonstrate other projects with which you are involved as well.
• YouTube. Many thought leaders in cybersecurity would rather create videos or podcasts than write articles, and having a professional YouTube account is an excellent option for this content. What is essential is that this is another great way to grow your brand and interact with the cybersecurity community. If you use YouTube, though, remember to keep it current and be sure to share it across all of your other social media accounts.
In this discussion, I have only touched on several of the larger social media channels. The essential points in this article should help you think about what your social media accounts say about you and how to use them effectively. What's important is that social media has not only significantly impacted how we learn and play, it is now also ingrained in how we work, grow our careers and find jobs.
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