Think Before You Tweet

It had to happen one day.

It’s probably happened before and I’m sure this sorry story will be repeated many times in different forms until recruiters finally understand the power of social media, and it’s use for informing and engaging not just name gathering.

This week it happened to a recruiter I know…

The Scene:

Candidate has an interview for an interim role with Company XXX. The interview goes well, and candidate is asked if they have any other interviews. Candidate says no interviews with companies, only agencies. Company XXX offers Candidate the job, a 6 month contract to start next Monday. Candidate says YES!

The Action:

Candidate goes home and logs in to their Twitter account. Candidate tweets to followers:

Got offer from Company XXX, hope to get one from Company YYY tomorrow. Exciting times.

Company XXX have people who monitor their mentions on Social Media. They see the tweet and pass to HR.

The Denouement:

Offer is withdrawn.

The Lessons:

1) Recruiters…Get on Twitter! Find out if your candidates (and clients for that matter) are on Twitter too. If they are, follow them and engage with them. You need to know what’s going on.

2) Candidates…If you are going to tweet about your interviews, and name the companies involved, expect your tweets to be read by both the company and the recruiter (in-house or 3rd party) because they need to know what’s going on.

3) Clients…Be prepared for people to share their experiences of you on social media. In this case the client found out something that enabled them to act quickly. That may not always be the case. You need to know what’s going on.

The Moral:

Get on Twitter, or any Social Media! You need to know what’s going on.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

Comment by JR Fent on August 9, 2010 at 12:13pm: Ahh the bite of social networking. I had a candidate this year that actually tweeted from his mobile phone DURING THE INTERVIEW. I'm glad the client didn't catch wind of it but I certainly was not going to be a champion for that candidate (for that position or any in the future.)

Good article and great points.

Comment by Mervyn Dinnen on August 9, 2010 at 5:19pm: Thanks...maybe sometime soon everything will be live tweeted!!
Would've thought that using a mobile during an interview was a no no anyway.

Comment by Greg Buechler on August 10, 2010 at 1:01pm: I believe the moral of this story is "be truthful!" Had the candidate said, 'yes, I have other interviews..." an still tweeted, he would not have had the offer withdrawn. The issue is that he lied during the interview.

Comment by Mervyn Dinnen on August 10, 2010 at 1:14pm: Good point Greg. There is a definite immediacy and transparency to social media engagements that may well expose anything less than truthful.

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