LBS LETS PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA REMAIN PERSONAL
Across the pond at the London Business School (LBS), Admissions Director David Simpson is less fussed about social media, especially personal accounts. “To be honest, we are quite relaxed about this,” he says. “We might sometimes look at a LinkedIn profile to see if time periods match up with your CV,” he says, “but we don’t look at Facebook accounts.”
“Your personal social media is your business,” he says. “I have my own views that if you have a presence online you need to manage it carefully, but we don’t go check to see you have a slightly risqué photo on your Facebook feed.”
“In our search I don’t see it as relevant—we have enough to look at,” he adds.
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE YOUR APPLICATION
More than simply presenting a liability, a well-maintained social media presence can also add significant value to a candidate’s application, admissions directors point out. “Things like LinkedIn can be very useful,” LBS’s Simpson notes.
Malta concurs. In fact, McCombs has specifically invited applicants—if they want—to share their LinkedIn profiles as part of the application process. The school even moved the prompt to link a LinkedIn profile higher in the application itself this year in the hopes that more people will do so.
Of course, if you do share your LinkedIn profile, Malta says, make sure it’s ready for review and it matches up with everything you talk about in your application. “That [discrepancy] is the thing that gives us more pause or drives more questions for us,” he cautions. “Or, if you give us a LinkedIn profile and the LinkedIn profile is really skimpy—like you have spent very little time on it.”
“If you are going to share it with us, make sure it is ready for primetime,” Malta advises. Even better, recognize it as an opportunity. “A really well-maintained LinkedIn profile with a lot of recommendations and details about the applicant’s background and accomplishments can really be an excellent complement to the application.”
At the end of the day, though some schools pay closer attention to social media in the MBA admissions process than others, the best rule of thumb is this one: Don’t post anything on social media that you wouldn’t want your grandmother (or the director of admissions at your target school) to read.
