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By Jessica Lam
IN an age where information is just a mouse
click away, recruiters and employers are increasingly using
the Internet as a means to screen and evaluate candidates.
Being “google-able” is an advantage that is
quickly becoming a necessity.
“In the past, the process of screening an
applicant involved a great deal of manual work,” says Ward Flock,
principal of the executive search firm, Stanton Chase in San
Francisco. “Now, everything is automated. This allows us
[recruiters] to conduct research that is much more in-depth.”
Even if you’re not looking for work, it’s
crucial to start cultivating an online presence—one that
highlights your accomplishments.
“Googling an applicant adds another layer of
context to the person,” says Flock. “You can find out
information about them that may not have been immediately visible on
their résumé.”
Flock says that you should take advantage of the
added exposure and use the Internet to illustrate your character.
For example, blogs reveal the personal side of your life.
“Writing about your family, friends,
interests, hobbies, etc., gives us a better understanding of who you
are,” says Flock. “It proves that you’re a well-rounded
individual, and that’s a definite plus.”
Being part of an online community, such as
Flickr or Facebook can be a powerful online vehicle.
Jeffrey Bentley, a search engine optimization
specialist, suggests capitalizing on the strength of user-generated
content.
“Build up the authority of your user profile
with meaningful contributions to the community,” he says.
“Contribute your knowledge and experience and it will pay off in
spades.”
The idea is that by engaging people and sharing
your ideas now, you help make your name more visible when people
look you up later.
The more pages you write, the more links
you’ll have, which will also help your search engine visibility.
(See “Optimizing your presence” below.)
Good or bad, the Internet puts it out there
It’s just as easy to taint your image as it is
to glorify it.
“If you’re on Facebook and all I see are
drunken photos, then your work ethic will be brought into
question,” says Flock.
“First impressions are everything. And your
online presence constitutes as your first impression,” he says.
The solution?
Delete photos, videos and comments that may mar
your character, and ask your friends to do the same.
“We all know that there are no secrets on the
Internet. There’s no such thing as privacy,” says Flock.
The best way to regulate your online presence is
to try Googling yourself. Although you can’t control what others
write about you, you can comment on these pages to discount the
facts or if it’s serious enough, you may even have a case for
libel.
Ignorance is not bliss
Although it may seem like an easier solution to
avoid having an online presence altogether, being non-existent in
the web world is not seen highly by recruiters.
“Especially if you’re applying for a
senior-level job, then you need to have the credentials to show for
it,” says Flock. “And if these credentials are nowhere to be
seen on the Internet, then it leads me to believe that you haven’t
made enough of an impact in order to be recognized.”
Ultimately, recruiters and employers equate the
visibility of an applicant’s Internet profile to the influence of
their work.
In fact, as an SEO specialist, Bentley knows
that people are usually too lazy to go beyond the first page of
search results. That’s why it is so important to create an online
presence that makes it to the top of the search engine page.
Optimizing your presence
If you have a popular name such Smith, Lee or
Mohamed, you may need to increase your search engine visibility. To
do that, you need to understand how search engines work.
Bentley explains that most searches, including
Google, use a citation-based model in order to determine the
relevance of other sites to a particular query.
“On the web, these citations are known as
links,” says Bentley.
In other words, the more sites that link to your
website, the higher you rank in a search engine’s results. The aim
of the game then becomes finding ways to increase the number of
links to your website, also known as link baiting.
Linked or not, the fact remains that recruiters
and employers are using Google and other search engines to screen
and research applicants.
For tech professionals in particular, having a
positive online presence is not only beneficial, it’s becoming
essential.
The author is an online recruiting specialist
and a search engine optimization professional.
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