Published on Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
You don’t even know it, but a lot of your unsavoury personal information is floating around in cyberspace. A simple click of the mouse can open up the proverbial can of worms for all to see.
So even as you read this, someone somewhere in the world may be reading about your escapades or activities. While most casual surfers do no harm, what about the growing trend among recruiters and employers to scour the Internet to check out both poten tial candidates and existing employees?
You will be surprised at what they can unearth – from unprofessional screen names and boasts to provocative photos from lies about qualifications to badmouthing an employer or sharing confidential information.
And needless to say, companies do rule out candidates and even cancel job offers based on what they find online.
In fact, according to a survey by a leading recruiting firm, 78 percent of executive recruiters routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates and 35 percent have eliminated candidates based on the information they found.
This means that your digital dirt can effectively jeopardise potential employment opportunities and derail an otherwise promising job search even before it starts.
So think about it! Can you afford to miss out on the job of your dreams because of a few careless remarks or salacious content?
It’s high time you check what’s posted about you on the web, because rest assured, others definitely will!
Track your online reputation – Indulge in some narcissistic ego-surfing by googling yourself. Simply typing your full name in quotation marks on a search engine will reveal a list of your digital footprints – everything you have ever done online or others have said about you. If there is some shocking old stuff like unprofessional conduct, radical views or insulting replies that you don’t want others to see or yourself to be associated with, contact the site owner and request for it to be removed/modified. But be prepared as he may just refuse to oblige!
Operation: Sanitise – Flamboyant profiles, reckless hobbies, silly brags or unruly exploits can be your undoing as recruiters check social networking sites as well.
It is advisable to take off questionable material, or at least use privacy settings and comment blocks so that only friends can view your information or post comments. Also, check your profile frequently to ensure that it does not display anything that may make you wince later on!
Clean up your act – Exercise prudence in what you say on your own blog or elsewhere. Steer clear of unnecessary rants or objectionable jokes. Sometimes, a seemingly innocent inquiry on an ‘agony aunt’ column about the effects of a long-forgotten indiscretion, violence or illegal behaviour can inadvertently spell an instantaneous death knell on your job search.
Seed it out – If your best efforts fail to erase your cyber skeletons, try to crowd them out with positive information. There are many smart ways to enhance flattering stuff about yourself and displace/suppress negative listings. As writer, Jared Flesher hints, “Search engines typically rank their results based on the number of sites that link to those pages.
The more links, the higher the search ranking. Make sure the pages you want recruiters to see have more links to them than the pages you’d rather keep hidden.”
For instance, use professional networking sites like Linkedin to showcase your skills, expertise and contacts, as they list high on Google results.
Keep tabs – You can also monitor what others are saying about you (on blogs or web groups) and keep yourself abreast of deliberate attempts to misrepresent or malign your character by setting up alerts (like Google Alerts) for anything posted online that is tied to your name.
As one blogger remarks, “Getting regular reports on what people are saying about things related to me is really useful because a lot of times there are errors. You want to make sure you set the record straight.”
Build a good web presence – An online professional identity is very important and you can actually exploit the Internet to your advantage. Starting a web page, blog or forum is a fresh way to get noticed. Use the platform to display your knowledge, passion and skills with intelligent content. Or, post well thought-out comments on industry blogs and message boards to get your name out there.
In a nutshell, you cannot afford to take any chances in this competitive world. Even an ostensibly harmless email can come back to haunt you. So be careful of what you put online; it will be preserved forever!
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