How to Find Career Success with Your Online Presence

hands on laptop

You have the experience and the resume, but aren’t getting interviews or calls from recruiters like you think you should (and in this market, you should!). If this sounds like you, you may need to work on what is known as your “personal brand”. The post below is Part One of a series I’m going to be sharing to help you improve your personal brand to help you boost your career.

 

Part 1: Intro to your personal brand

When I tell candidates to take a hard look at their LinkedIn profiles and check their profiles on other networks, sometimes I’m met with a bit of resistance. I get it, updating your online presence can seem like a daunting and unnecessary task, but in today’s digital world, it’s necessary to continuously be staying on top of what the search engines are saying about you and making sure that the message about you is one you want recruiters and HR departments to be seeing. Even if you are not actively looking for a new job, your online presence is the main player when it comes to networking (ie-any time you meet someone new). This is a big part of your “personal brand” that helps others to see what makes you qualified, interesting, and uniquely you and what would make you a fit for their company.

(Of course, the term “Personal Brand” doesn’t just relate to your online presence, but also your in-person presence. For the moment, we’re going to focus on your online presence as this is where many job seekers begin their journey. )

Google Yourself

The phrase “personal brand” may sound a bit daunting, especially if you don’t work in marketing, but it’s easier to make your online brand work for you than you may think. To get started, when was the last time you Googled yourself? See what’s out there when someone Googles your name and you might be surprised what old accounts end up coming up. Once you do, revisit any old accounts and either change privacy settings or remove any information you wouldn’t want a future employer seeing about you. This doesn’t mean you should only have photos of you wearing a suit in front of a bookcase circulating the internet. In fact, by today’s standards, wearing a suit is considered outdated and stuffy in many different industries. Just make sure the college spring break photos you posted back in the day aren’t available for the world to see, if you catch my drift.

Keep in mind, making your own account private may be just the thing you need to do on Instagram (or where ever you like to hang out online) but you never know how someone in one of your networks may be connected to your next position – especially if you have a big network. Do you remember that friend request you accepted on Facebook from that person you went to high school with and talked to maybe once? Me neither. Well, that individual may be working at a company that you are interested in and very well may be friends (actual, not-just-on-Facebook friends) with the HR Director.

So go ahead as our first step and see what the internet is saying about you! Our next topic in this series will be discussing “What is a Personal Brand” and how to go about developing yours.

In the meantime, check out our job boards and send us a resume!