There is increasingly high competition within the job market, so it is vital that Candidates present themselves in the best light, both in person and online. Many employers confess to using search engines and viewing social media profiles before making a hire, and due to this, it is vital that jobseekers remember that everything they post online can be seen by anyone, including prospective employers. What can be observed about you on the internet can be the ‘make-or-break’ of your ‘perfect career move’.

A recent survey conducted by the recruiting software company, Jobvite, has revealed that 90% of HR Managers admit to looking at Candidates social media profiles in order to ‘vet’ them before committing to interviewing the individual. In many of these cases the findings have had a direct impact – just over half of the 1,844 businesses that were surveyed stated that they changed their minds on applicants as a result of their discoveries. Spelling and grammar mistakes, in addition to bad language and photographs of illegal drug and alcohol use are just a handful of the findings that led to Candidates not receiving an interview.

In a further study (Barclay’s Lifeskills), it was highlighted that the risk of prospective employers seeing such images did not prevent Candidates from posting them, in fact, 77% of those asked were mindful of the fact that their profile was likely to be checked. Of these Candidates, a quarter had no privacy settings on their profiles.

How to Manager Your Online Presence

Google Yourself

The initial phase of monitoring your online presence is simply googling yourself frequently. A damaging post may appear at any time, so it is important that you try to stay on top of everything about you on the internet.

Hints & Tips:

• Log out of any Goole accounts prior to searching, this means you are less likely to receive subjective results that do not show a true reflection of what the rest of the world can see.
• Set up alerts on Yahoo or Google – this way you can be notified when anything new about you appears online.

Create Personal Content

Unfortunately you cannot control what others post about you online, whether these are images or updates, however, you can build yourself a strong online presence to keep any undesirable posts at bay. Make an effort to fill the internet with positive personal content.

Hints & Tips:

• Contemplate buying any domains that are related to your name, if your name is ‘Joe Bloggs’, see if you can purchase www.JoeBloggs.com etc., these pages will have a strong ranking in Google’s results and will hopefully push any listings that you don’t want others to see off of the first search results page.
• Once you have purchased these domains, use it to broadcast positive information about yourself, create a blog relating to your industry, or merely publish your CV and/or portfolio.

Create a LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a great way to professionally promote yourself and your achievements. Whether you are actively looking for a new opportunity or happily employed, LinkedIn is the perfect platform to share your thoughts, ideas and accomplishments. LinkedIn is always one of the top 3 results when you google somebody’s name, so to continue with your professional branding and to keep wanted content to the top of searches, it is important to create a profile.

If you are on the lookout for your next career opportunity, ensure you select which social media sites you would like potential employers to be able to see and adjust your privacy settings accordingly. You do not want any personal images or updates to ruin your chances at landing your dream role. It is important that you also remove any old profiles that you no longer use, just because a social media site is inactive, it does not mean that your profile cannot be accessed by others.

If you would like further advice and tips on how to repair or enhance your social media profiles, don’t hesitate to contact us directly at info@blayze-unguem.com.

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