Jun 27 2008
Manage Your Online Reputation & Avoid Embarrassment with these 4 Employment Strategies
Guest Blogger: Corey Hammond
Even though I consider myself fairly skilled with utilizing the web for marketing and information gathering, I am still amazed about the incredible amount of data that is available. With companies under even more pressure to make good hiring decisions, in addition to investigating current employees, there has been an emerging trend of employer’s using the web to research prospective or current employees via a variety of web tools. So what can employees do to make sure they are getting a fair look? Here are 4 things to look at to avoid some potentially embarrassing situations that could arise from your online activities.
Search Engine Results
Who has ever Googled someone or yourself? I’ll admit, I do it all the time! Just like my credit report, I monitor the search engine results pages for my name. The last thing I want is something to show up that isn’t accurate or could potentially hurt my reputation. Online reputation management is a huge thing right now. People have the ability to quickly get information on companies and people. Outside of Google there are specific people search engines like Wink and Pipl. Employers can use Google and these other search engines to potentially find information about you. So how do you take control of this? Check out these suggestions:
- Buy a domain name, that is your name - You could use the site as an online resume or profile or even start a blog
- Start a blog! Even if your name domain name is taken, you can still use a free service like Wordpress.com to create your own blog.
- Be social online! Social network profiles can easily come up in the search engine results for your name. There is more information on them in the next section.
Social Profiles and Social Networks
Social networks like Facebook and Myspace are great places to keep connected with friends and family. When it comes to your current and future employers, it can be a different story! These social networks can give employers a great feel for who you are that they may not get in the office or in an interview. Here are some tips to keep in mind if you have social network profiles:
- Don’t bad mouth your company where people can see it - At some point in everyone’s life there comes a point where you’re not happy with your current employment situation for one reason or another. The best thing to do is to keep it private. The last thing you want is for your current employer to see you speaking about them negatively. On the flip side, it probably won’t look too good to a prospective employer if you are speaking badly about your current employer because they may think you’ll do the same about them.
- Watch what you put on your status - Almost every social network allows you to update your status to tell people what you are doing or where you are at. There is even a fairly new social network called Brightkite that allows it’s users to “check in” and give people their current location. You can have this network change your Facebook status and update your Twitter as well. It would be pretty embarrassing to “check in” to a competitor’s office that you are interviewing with when you requested the morning off for “personal reasons” and that status gets spread across multiple social profiles.
- Keep profiles “clean” - Keep stuff off of your main profile page that could be misinterpreted like “drinking pictures”. Even though they are personal, it’s a lot safer to not let people’s minds wander. Another solution may be to check your profile’s security or privacy settings and keep your profile private until you accept a friend request. This way you can keep a tighter lid on who is actually viewing things.
Resume and Job Boards
It’s great to have a good resume but be careful on where you put it. There are sites like Monster and CareerBuilder that help people find jobs by allowing people to upload an online resume. These services are also used by companies to search for particular people with skill sets they are looking for. The problem is that your current employer could find it too! Depending on your job and career, it might be a better idea to submit your resume directly to different companies. Another option might be to work with a recruiter that has connections and can be discrete with your identity.
I decided to give LinkedIn its own section because it is fairly unique. LinkedIn essentially IS your resume online, which is ok! BUT, LinkedIn is also a social network where you connect with people.
- Be careful who you connect with and when - If you are interviewing at places it probably isn’t the best idea to connect with them before you have the job. You company could potentially see your connections and be like “hey, Corey just added recruiter so and so from Competitor XYZ to his LinkedIn connections”. This can be a pretty big red flag that you may be interviewing with them. The same could work with adding too many connections from the same company. If all of a sudden, you know 3+ people from a competing company, it could look suspicious.
- Build your profile out - It’s good to at least have the basics on your profile and ensure the information is correct. If you are really gearing up to find a new job, it might be a good idea to start building out your profile more. You can “beef up” certain areas like your summary and specialties. You could also participate in different groups and associations. Another good way to increase your presence is to start answering questions related to your industry that could showcase your knowledge and help others out. You never know, one of these questions might be posed by someone from the company you are looking to work for!