Social media now sits at the very heart of our daily routines. But while it’s a great way to keep in touch, share our feelings with friends and loved ones, and stay up to date with news and current affairs (gossip to you and me!), what you post online can really harm your chances of getting your next job. Here are five things that you shouldn’t be doing on social media:

1. Complain about your current job

Don’t like your job or your boss? Keep it offline: personal rants on social media against an individual or a company are not professional, or acceptable, and should be avoided at all times. If you have a genuine complaint always use the official avenues and procedures.

2. Focus on the negative

Posting negative thoughts or comments all the time will make you come across as a negative person, and nobody wants to work with one of those, do they?

3. Lie

If you are caught telling lies, whether online or offline, no one will believe anything else you have to say. And chances are they will never trust you again either. As for employers, if you’ve lied on your Linkedin profile you probably don’t have the skills or qualifications to do the job. You’ll get found out eventually, and if you do you’ll probably end up losing your job, so lying is certainly not worth it.

4. Post photos doing something you’re ashamed of the day after

While it’s OK to have fun, it should never affect your ability to do a job, and to do it to the best of your abilities. So any picture that shows you’re not in control, or worse still, doing something illegal, should never be shared, regardless of how locked down your Facebook account is. They always have a habit of escaping. If you’re not comfortable with anyone and everyone seeing those pictures then don’t post them in the first place.

5. Say things that you wouldn’t repeat in person

Would you be happy to repeat what you have just posted on Twitter out loud, to your grandma? If the answer is no, don’t post it. Always use your common sense: if you’re not prepared to say it in person, don’t say it virtually either.

At Enterprise we love social media. After all, you can connect with all our recruiters on Twitter or via Linkedin. But like with everything else in life, you should only use it properly and with a healthy dose of common sense.

Are you following us already on Twitter or, Linkedin or Facebook? If you aren’t then you’re probably missing out on all the great graduate jobs, internships and jobs at our Aldershot contact centre that we regularly announce on our social media channels.