Digital dirt on search engines can make or break your next job offer!
By StormStaff
Here’s a question for you: have you ever Googled your name? If not, you may want to take a moment to type it into the search bar and see what comes up!
In our previous blog post, we told you to Google your name. Why? When doing research prior to your job hunt, it is always important to not only research potential employers but yourself as well! Many hiring managers and recruiters do this, so that means your online presence can make or break your job search now more than ever before. Make sure positive and professional content appears under your name before someone may find something you won’t want to be seen.
First off, how can you search yourself? Check out several search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing, etc. Review the first three to five pages of results for content.
When you conduct your search, try the following search options:
- Type in alternate forms of your name – any nicknames, alternate spellings, etc.
- Type in your middle name
- Type in your middle initial
- Type in the names of any former employers included with your name
If you’ve searched yourself and found nothing, now is the perfect time to add to your professional online presence! There are several steps you can take:
- Keep your current content focused on the positive, whether that relates to professional or personal information.
- You may want to set your profile to “private” or play around with the block settings until you find something that works. Remember, others can see your friends and monitor comments posted so you may want to proceed with caution.
- Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed.
- Make your content useful. A great way to establish a professional online presence starts with adding content that can be linked back to your name. Respond to forum posts, answer questions or comment on blogs related to your industry with your full, professional name and web profile or page you want people to see.
- Be wary of people out there on the Internet with the same name as you. Find out who has any variation of your name on search engines and be prepared to discuss and explain.
So what happens if you DO find something that you don’t want a hiring manager to see? What can you do to clear your name online?
First, try to remove all the negative information. Check out and review all of your social networking profiles, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc. for anything that can be harmful to your job search. These profiles are in your control, so you can easily go in and remove negative information, photos or comments.
If you can’t delete something you find, push it back. Although you have the opportunity to review and delete certain personal profiles, there may be negative online search results that are out of your control. Want to get rid of them? Bury negative information with positive references. Usually, search engine results are based on number of links coming in to a site with more weight given to social sites, like blogs. One of the best ways to push off a negative online reputation can be for a job seeker to set up his/her own blog and add a professional touch to other social networking profiles, such as LinkedIn. After that, begin aggressively posting positive, professional information to start crowding out anything negative. If you have negative results on the first few pages of your search results, it will be very obvious to hiring managers. If these results are pushed back to the tenth page however, hiring managers are less likely to find them.
Overall, it can be very helpful to check out your information before you start applying to jobs! If you DO find yourself with digital dirt, doing your research will at least give you the chance to avoid having this information work against you down the line.
Source: Garden State Employment and Training Association, CareerBuilder
About StormStaff
StormStaff is a professional services company that specializes in providing Administrative, Clerical, Legal and Financial professionals to various organizations on a temporary, temporary-to-hire and direct-hire basis. The StormStaff Career Tips and Tricks blog covers a vast array of career-related subjects for every level of the job search, ranging from cover letter and resume advice, social networking tips, personal branding strategies and more.
Go to FACEBOOK
Go to HOME
