Why your online reputation could be keeping you unemployed and what you can do about it
Have you Googled yourself lately? Do it. Right now.
If you’re like me, your first listing is probably your Facebook profile. Strangely enough, the second listing under my name is one of the first articles I wrote for TalentEgg’s resource site for students, the Incubator. After that come the other social networks I belong to, such as Twitter,
LinkedIn and FriendFeed. My blog is the second-last listing on the first page.
Phew. There’s nothing incriminating. Even on the subsequent pages, someone searching for my name would only find a bunch of articles I’ve written for various newspapers and online publications, comments I’ve left on blogs, and a few websites that have used and credited me for my photographs. Luckily, however, I have a very unique name. I have personally created almost every listing on the first five or six pages of my Google search and I’m fairly confident that, for anyone who is curious enough to Google me, my personal brand is intact.
Until someone, say the hiring manager at the company you want to work for, meets you, your personal brand consists of what they can find out about you online. As they search for you, what they’re really doing is determining if your personal brand matches up with the company’s brand. Here are a few tips to ensure your potential future employers can find you and like what they see.
Use your privacy settings on Facebook
Facebook tends to be the place where everything that’s not-so-flattering ends up. There’s probably nothing on Facebook you need for professional purposes, so lock it up. Under “Settings” in the blue strip at the top of the page, check out “Privacy Settings” in the drop-down menu and start with your profile.
It is up to you how much of your profile you set as visible to “Only Friends,” but I would recommend restricting access to your Personal Info, Status and Links, Photos and Videos Tagged of You, and Wall Posts.
Clean up your act
If we’ve learned anything from American beauty pageants, it’s that no matter how “private” your profile seems to be, chances are the content that will embarrass you the most will make its way into the wrong hands. So just get rid of it.
Delete photos of you doing any illegal or “morally questionable” activities. We’ve all done stupid things, but it’s safe to say that photos involving drugs, violence, vandalism or sex – no matter how much fun they were – should be left on your hard drive. Untag yourself in any photos you can’t convince your friends to delete.
Delete and stop posting status updates, comments or notes that use vulgar or derogatory language. Nobody’s asking you to write poetry, but using some of those nice words you learned in college or university can’t hurt.
In my opinion, photos of you having drinks with friends at the pub or a party are OK, depending on your pose and what you’re wearing. On the other hand, photos of you passed out in a pile of empty cans or regular status updates which say, “I’m getting totally wasted tonight!” are probably not.
Produce meaningful content and contribute to the conversation
The easiest way to do this is to create a profile and join the conversations that are happening on LinkedIn and Twitter about your industry. (Yes, Twitter can be used as a professional tool.)
However, the best way to do this is to create more meaningful content. Create an online portfolio or résumé. Or create a blog, or contribute to an established one using your real name. It doesn’t have to be about your work or the industry you want to work in. It can be about gardening or kittens or fashion or travel or politics, or whatever else you’re interested in and can write about.
Then, find other blogs with similar interests to yours and start commenting on their content – again, using your real name.
Distinguish yourself from everyone else with your name
If you parents did not have the foresight to give you a unique first name-last name combination so you’d appear at the top of the Google search listings, you have a bit of extra leg work to do. Whenever possible, include your general location and any other details that aren’t too personal about yourself that might help a potential employer find you, such as where you went to school or what career path you’re headed down.
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Comments
Some generally sound advice here. Beware, however, that using your real name on blogs and comments can be a terrible generator of spam and phishing.
Cheers,
Good Gawd. If you've got anything to say that you don't want to be gobsmacked with two years from now, get a pseudonym and a disposable email to match (like mine.)
"...I have a very unique name."
Your name is either unique or not. There can be no degrees. Distinctive might have been a better choice.
A better idea, don't post your personal information online at all. The current generation of people are so privacy unsavy it's not funny.
It's slightly more important if you ever think of going into a career that involves something in the oh...public service field. As they'll probably start digging quickly.
I was kind of surprised that the author uses her real name in comments on blogs. I googled my name and got no hits for me but a few referring to me. I am pleased to be essentially invisible online even though I've been there starting in the 80's (such as it was then).
If you have no interest in cultivating a sort of "personal brand," then my article is of no relevance to you.
Everything I've put online I have done consciously and I carefully weighed the consequences before I decided to switch from an alias to my real name.
However, in the niche that I work in and in my broader journalistic training, pseudonyms hold little (if any) weight and, in my opinion, contribute little value to the conversation because you are not held responsible for what you say. Comments posted with an alias and no link to a professional website or blog are essentially spam.
Sound advise.
Cassandra, how do you see creating a personal brand, by creating a blog or commenting with your real name, on topics outside your field will be viewed as an asset?
I don't know where Dan got his idea about boomers.
I'm a post boomer, finishing high school the first year that College enrollment dropped after the boom, and keep getting asked why I'm still working.
(DB Admin/Computing Science is an intellectual challenge and being paid $65-80 per hour for 100 hours a month is a lifestyle which was easy to get used to).
The boomers are already out of the workforce, unless they messed up along the way financially or maritally. Divorce takes a toll in finances, as well as emotionally.
My wife and I assumed a "bargain" 16% mortgate on a house at the bottom of the Ray Gun - Lyin Brian depression and paid it off in 6 years. Any boomer or post boomer who focused on paying off mortgage debt and avoiding car loans should be well off by now. Avoidng divorce also helps.
I started out in Honours Physics, but noticed as I was about to enter 4th year that the same PHDs who were teaching my 1st year labs were still lab insructors.
My wife has an honours microbiology degree, but her background in computing goes back to High School Fortran classes in 1970 and has been her main career.
Switching to a double major in Physics and Computing meant never being unemployed, even during the 1980s. When Times are hard process improvement and automation become even more important for
Many fellow grads who started out in Chemistry, math, physics, etc. ended up pushing gigabytes around for a living.
My son is a recent double major grad in Engineering Computing Science and History and has a job with a web company. He loves the history, but there are many more jobs in IT.
My daughter started out in math and physics after acing the provincial scholarship exams, but found Earth and Ocean Sciences more interesting. There is so much chemistry in EOS that she switched to a double major, and is also taking biology courses. Lots of skills for a high tech world.
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