Last year, AirAsia decided to use its blog to recruit cadet pilots. It asked candidates to write a blog on “Why AirAsia should hire you?”

It received 1,000 entries, one of which came from a finalist for Miss Malaysia. The aspiring beauty queen must have wanted to follow in the footsteps of one of AirAsia’s pilots who is a former Miss Thailand. 

As part of the recruitment exercise, it also asked its pilots to blog about their own experiences flying with AirAsia.

CEO Tony Fernandes was also asked to tweet job openings with the come-on line of, “Who wants to work for me?”

Said Kathleen Tan, head of commercial for the AirAsia group, “Social media works well for us as a recruitment platform because one of the criteria we have for recruits is they must know social networks.

“We also check their Facebook pages because those can tell a lot about someone’s personality.”

Asked if AirAsia would hire someone whose Facebook photos show him or her drunk at parties, Tan said, “It’s ok, we party too. You have to use your professional judgement too and so maybe you ask them to explain the photos.”

One big no-no is people who bitch about the companies they work for. “We don’t want to hire such people,” said Tan. 

Another tip: Don’t show your ugly side.

“It’s tough. People want to share everything on their Facebook pages and we like people to express their individuality but there are more conservative companies out there who may not accept that,” said Tan. 

Employers have to be on the lookout for staff who bitch about them and at AirAsia, the human resource and legal departments are responsible for keeping track of such incidents. 

“It’s a social evil – sometimes you just feel like you’ve had such a bad day and you just want to vent it and you forget it’s going to be there forever or who’s following you,” said Tan.

She recalled an instance when one of her marketing managers tweeted, “I have no life, I need sex”. 

“She forgot I was following her and so I reminded her. But it’s good – it tells me too if something is wrong, if something needs addressing.”

Note: “Social Media and Finding A Job” will be one of the topics of discussion during the WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring evening which starts at 7pm on Thursday, April 29, at the Fairmont Singapore. 

Featured image credit (social media communication icons on keyboard) : iStock