Remember the old Las Vegas marketing line, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”?
Now, that line has morphed into “What happens in Vegas, stays in Google (and Bing, et al.).”
Leading a “perfect” life – very low-profile, never breaking any laws, never participating in any form of social media, never doing anything that might draw negative attention, does not ensure a clean personal reputation in 2018 or beyond, unfortunately.
Nor, does such a low profile, if achieved, impress recruiters and hiring managers with your knowledge of how social media and the Internet work.
Today, a minimal online professional profile can be as hazardous to your job search and your career as a profile which is full of bad photos and nasty comments.
A 2018 CareerBuilder survey found that nearly half of employers (47%) say that if they can't find a job candidate online, they are less likely to call that person in for an interview.
When you are invisible:
Social proof is very important for a successful job search, today.
Social proof is your public Internet activities - your public profiles and contributions - reviewed by recruiters, potential employers, and others. Without knowing you, those activities are proof of who you really are.
Creating social proof doesn't require spending 10 hours a day dumping content and comments on every social network available. Spend time creating focused, consistent content on LinkedIn and other social networks appropriate for you and your career.
According to an excellent study funded by Microsoft back in 2009, eighty percent (80%!) of employers and recruiters conducted an Internet search on the names of applicants. Searching is much more widely used now!
Nearly 100% of employers search the Internet using the applicant's name - a quick and easy "background check" to eliminate the obvious "bad fits." If they find negative content or nothing positive and relevant about/by you, your application is ignored.
You must manage your public actions so that what is found shows you in a positive light. This need is not going to disappear. It is only going to become stronger in the future.
The assumptions employers make:
Your Internet activities can reveal a great deal about you, and demonstrate the level of your skills, capabilities, experience, and knowledge.
To know what employers and recruiters find when they search for your name in Google, monitor what search engines are associating with your name. Note that this doesn’t need to be associated with you! Mistaken online identity is more of an issue than many people believe.
Anything a search engine associates with your name, whether it is you personally or someone else who shares the same name, can be a problem for you because an employer won’t know whether or not the person involved is you.
You can lose out on an opportunity because someone else has “muddied” your name.
Read Defensive Googling for details on how to monitor your name, best practiced at least on a monthly basis.
Employers are accustomed to a degree of "exaggeration" in many resumes and job applications, and, not surprisingly, they don't like it.
Did you really attend that school, earn that degree, work for that employer, and hold that job title? Are you really the skilled communicator you claim to be? Do you demonstrate the expertise your resume says you have?
Today, thanks to social media and search engines, it is much easier for employers to uncover exaggerations. It is also easier to shine in comparison with other job seekers.
It is important to be purposeful in creating your online reputation. And to be active, particularly when you are job hunting.
This will actually accomplish two goals – managing your reputation, of course, and also demonstrating that you understand how to operate in the current business environment which definitely includes an online element. It will also help you distance yourself from everyone else who shares the same name.
Considering their impact in Google search results, any of these basic elements could establish your online presence and help you manage your online reputation. They would also help you recover your reputation if necessary, depending on how many you use.
Separate your public "professional" or "business" identity from your private, informal, "fun" or "angry" identities. Don't let those crazy photos you posted in college or your political rants on your local newspaper's website scare a potential employer away.
If you absolutely must rant on a topic or post questionable photos or comments, use a different identity from the identity you use for work and job search.
Social proof is not optional, but it is also not hard to develop, thanks to LinkedIn and Google. Just remember that potential employers may see everything you post publicly with your professional name, and act accordingly.
About the author...
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
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