Why is online reputation management so essential?

Online searches have become such a standard practice that only 2% of recruiters surveyed did not research their applicants online. Search Engines were the biggest research tool with a huge 78% of recruitment agents googling their applicants, 63% looking at social media sites, 59% looking at photo and video sharing sites and 48% found their way to professional and business working sites.

Some of the reasons why potential candidates were rejected were: concerns about their lifestyle (58%), inappropriate comments and text written by candidates (56%), unsuitable photos, videos and information (55%), inappropriate comments or text written by friends and families (43%) and comments criticising previous employers, co-workers or clients (40%).

What can you do to manage your online reputation?

Only 30 – 35% of respondents (depending on nationality) surveyed felt that their online reputation had little impact or significance when searching for a new job so how do you become part of the savvy majority? To a certain extent, you cannot control what people are saying and posting about you online but there are certain steps you can take to manage your online reputation:

• Ensure your Facebook can only be accessed by your friends online and control what is shown on the search results page. You can also adjust your privacy settings and opt out of public searches altogether.
• Don’t post any discriminating photos or videos online and ask your friends and family not to ‘tag you’ in any photos on Facebook without your authorisation to help manage your online reputation.
• Disable the auto-follow function on Twitter and protect your tweets. Remember when people respond to your tweets, this also appears on your profile. Search engines are also starting to index tweets in their search engine results.
• If you have an online blog, be careful not to write anything that might hurt your future job prospects. Make sure you also monitor comments online as well.
• Exercise caution when writing blog comments, participating in forums or engaging in social media activities. These may be linked back to you or your blog.
• Use a separate email account for work and your online social media activities and keep your public and private life separate.

Online reputation management is made even easier by setting up a Google alert. With this free service, you can search news, blogs, web, video, or groups for mentions of your name and get alerts instantly, once a day, or once a week.

What are the ethical implications of online search?

HR professionals searching online to find out information about applicants brings up some ethical concerns. The dangers of online search are that recruiters can easily and anonymously find out information about you that they would not be permitted to ask in an interview or application form. This may include:

• your marital status and age;
• your religious or cultural background;
• whether you are planning a family;
• medical history and;
• financial background.

Although this is very hard to prove and prosecute, anti-discrimination laws still apply so if you think you have been discriminated against, you should speak to the anti-discrimination body in your region. Of the HR professionals surveyed, 75% said their companies had a formal policy in place to research applicants online and 79% of US recruiters check reputational data.

So how do you exercise damage control?

So what can you do if you have posted a photo, comment or video in cyberspace and the past has come back to haunt you or someone has written something unfairly about you? In the world of job seeking, any publicity is not good publicity, it may just all be bad. And remember, it is very difficult to remove a listing from a search engine once it has been published.

Susan Moskwa, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst says to “reduce its [bad publicity] visibility in the search results by proactively publishing useful, positive information about yourself or your business.”

Ways you can proactively manage your online reputation and publish positive information are:

• The easiest way is to remove the negative comment at the source. Email the owner of the blog or website and ask them to remove the offending post or allow you to post a response in return.
• To counter negative comments about your skills and/or business, ask your clients who are happy with your services to post good reviews.
• Ask your previous managers and/or colleagues to post recommendations for you on business social networking websites like LinkedIn.
• Create your own blog where you can write posts about news and views, tips and tricks and other issues relevant to your industry. If you have an uncommon name, it shouldn’t take much effort at all to appear on page one of the search engine listings.
• As well as creating your own blog, write guest posts, comments on blogs or participate in forums that are relevant your industry and establish yourself as an expert in the field.
• Establish a positive social media presence if you haven’t done so already by creating a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account and again, this should rank well in search engines.

The good news is that all this hard work and online reputation management will not go unnoticed with almost half of human resources professionals in the United States surveyed stating that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to a great extent.

In light of all this research, never post anything online that you would not want to talk about in an interview. The reality of today’s competitive job market is that a 140 character tweet that took you two seconds may have more relevance than your two page resume you spent hours updating. So while social media networks are becoming almost essential for interacting with busy friends and family, online reputation management is even more important for job searching and ongoing career development.

The New Year is often a time of reflection and there are traditionally a lot of resignations in early months of the year as people revaluate their career goals, change their careers or go travelling. Here are five tips to find a job in the New Year.

Get job ready

Make sure that your resume is up to date, your suit is dry cleaned and your referees are primed that you’re looking for a new opportunity. If you work in a creative industry, you should also update your portfolio and gather examples of your work. You may want to start rotating your work hours so you are able to go for interviews before or after work or start building up your flexi time in case you are called for an interview.

Call on your network

Speak to your friends, family and network of contacts and let them know you are looking for a new job opportunity. Networking is an excellent way of finding a job in the ‘hidden’ job market ie a job that is not even advertised. Remember in the competitive field of job searching, it’s often who you know and not what you know that will secure you an interview or introduction to a company.

Research the market

Find out what the market rate is for someone in your industry and what your market value is. This can be done by looking at current job advertisements, speaking to recruitment agents and looking at industry surveys. Look before you leap – it may be better to try and negotiate a pay rise first or speak to your manager before you leave your current company. Knowing what your market value is will put you in a better negotiating position when you are asked the question about your salary expectations.

Create a list of companies to target

Do you have a list of companies you would like to work for? It’s a good idea to research companies you are interested in and create a list of companies to target in your job search. All the information you need is readily available on the web, and it’s easy to find detailed information about potential employers.

Nail the interview

Once you have tidied up your resume, targeted your job search, know your market value and scored that all important interview, now you have to convince them that you’re the right person for the role. Research the company before you go for the interview, look presentable, have a list of questions to ask at the interview and answer questions confidently, showing your skills, experience and expertise.

The holiday period is a great time to update your resume, do research about different companies and mentally prepare for your job search so when jobs start getting advertised in the New Year, you will be ready to take on a new challenge and start the New Year on a great note.

As the job market becomes more competitive, you need to think outside the cubicle, be proactive and think of creative ways to job search and secure a job interview. Here are five different ways to get your resume noticed.

Sending out unsolicited resumes

Sending out resumes to companies of your choice is a good way to secure an interview. Companies will often have a page on their website where you send your resume to their HR department and larger corporations will have websites dedicated purely to job searching.

You can upload your resume and sign up to get job alerts sent to your email account and be advised when a job that suits your skills and experience is available.

When sending your resume to smaller companies, find out the person who is in charge of the hiring or the head of the department you are targeting so you can personalise your application. Always follow up on the unsolicited resumes that you send with a quick telephone call to make your resume more memorable in the mind of the employer.

Volunteer work

Volunteer work is a great way to break into a new industry, learn additional skills and make new contacts. Employers look very favourably upon potential employees who volunteer and you can ask the organisation to provide a reference for you.

If you’re seeking a position in a highly sort after industry like publishing, fashion or photography, you may have to do volunteer work to secure an entry level job or if you’re finding it hard to get a job, offer to work for free for two weeks to prove your worth to the company and show your dedication and passion.

Networking

Networking is a great way to meet contacts in your industry that could potentially help you find a new opportunity, change careers or move up to management level. Ways in which to do this are attend industry events, conferences, trade shows or hold information interviews.

You can even follow companies through social media networks such as Twitter or Facebook or business networks like LinkedIn and tell your friends, family and contacts that you are looking for a new job. Read our article Network your way to a new job for more information on how networking can help you find a new job.

Blogging

Blogging on the internet is a great way to showcase your writing, fashion expertise, graphic design skills or let the world know that you’re looking for a new opportunity.

There are easy to use platforms like WordPress, Blogger and Typepad that allow you to easily customise a blog template or take it one step further and buy a web hosting package and your own personalised URL and host the blog on your own website.

Door knocking

Write out a list of organisations you want to target. Your local library should have business directories you can access or look for websites which have directory listings of business in your industry. Print out copies of your resume and go from business to business and ask for the HR manager so you can give them your resume.

This works well in creative industries like advertising or sales or industries like trades, retail and hospitality where they have a shop front so you can speak to the manager.

Take note, not all methods will work for all industries. Conservative companies or government organisations may only stick to traditional methods of hiring staff whereas industries like publishing, fashion and retail are more open to unsolicited applications. The first point of call is to find out the culture of the company you are targeting and work out what methods would work best for them.

You only have one chance to make a good impression so how do you stand out from the crowd? Follow these five steps and put your best foot forward in a job interview.

Be nice to the receptionist

The receptionist of a company is often the gatekeeper and privy to a company’s secrets. Greet the receptionist with a warm smile and engage them with small talk but not enough to distract them from their tasks or be annoying. Treat everyone with equal courtesy as you don’t know who has influence in the decision making process. More often than not particularly if it is a small to medium sized company, the interviewer will ask the receptionist their first impressions of the people who are interviewing for the job.

Don’t speak badly of your last employer

A standard interview question is why you left your last job. In no circumstance, should you speak badly of your last employer or focus solely on remuneration. Good answers to these questions include a lack of career progression, lack of challenges or responsibility, excessive travelling time, change of city, a career change or a redundancy. An interview must always be positive. If you have left your job in less than salubrious circumstances, think of an answer to this question before the interview and practice your response so it is clear in your mind.

Do your research

Make sure you look at the company’s website, read their media releases, follow them on Twitter or add their Facebook page and look on the internet for any recent articles that have been written about the company. Demonstrate that you have knowledge about their business or industry, you have done your research and you are enthusiastic about the prospect of working for their company. This alone could set you aside from the less prepared clients.

Ask well thought out questions

Ask questions that show you have done your research and you have listened throughout the interview. Employers don’t want to be asked stock standard questions where the answers were already outlined on the job advertisement, easily found by looking at their website or were answered in the interview. If the interviewer mentions a new client or project in the interview, ask a question about the project that relates to your job description. Asking well researched questions is a good opportunity to show you have researched the company and you are interested in working for them.

Show your personality

Interviewers want to be wowed by someone who has character and charisma not someone who is robotic and quoting their mission statement, facts and figures from their website. At the end of the day, would you want to be hired by a company that didn’t appreciate your sense of humour or your quirks? Always remember to be positive and enthusiastic with a nothing is too hard or too much trouble attitude.

It’s essential to make a good first impression but always remember that you’re interviewing the person at the company as much as they are interviewing you. The corporate culture is sometimes the determining factor of whether you will be happy in a job and sometimes more important than the nature of the role itself.

We’ve all heard the saying it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Most job opportunities are not advertised. This is called the hidden job market. Networking is the job searching equivalent of speed dating. You need to promote yourself to as many people as possible and let them know that you’re looking for a new career opportunity. Here are five ways to network your way to a new job.

Industry associations

A good way to meet people in your industry is to join an industry association. The organisation may hold events or functions where you can meet people in the trade and let them know about your aspirations to work in their industry or at their company.

A feature of your membership may be access to member only job listings, an email newsletter or print publication that gives you information about job listings, new businesses, products or services, trends or new legislation governing your industry.

Trade shows and events

Attending trade shows are a great way to make contacts in the industry. You can collect marketing collateral about the company’s services and products, talk to a representative at the exhibition about the industry and also attend information sessions.

Don’t just go there blindly and hope for the best. Put a game plan together and find out in advance what businesses will be attending, research the companies and vendors and make a schedule of the seminars to attend that fit best with your career goals. You should end up with a list of appointments to make, booths to visit and education sessions to attend.

Information interviews

A great way to network is to organise an informal interview with a decision maker in the company you wish to work for whether that be the CEO or a department manager. This is where you basically glean information about the company they work for or the industry you want to break into.

Keep the interviews to a maximum of 20 minutes. Most people will be happy to share information about their industry and help an outsider become an insider. Remember the object of the interview is to obtain contacts and get information and not ask for a job.

Social networking tools

Social media networks such as Twitter are a good way to keep abreast of what is happening at a particular company and keep in contact with your network without worrying about looking like a stalker.

With Twitter you can follow a person or company who may send out tweets about job openings, projects they are working on or new products or services they have released. There are also business networks like LinkedIn where you can add your business and personal contacts and grow a network of people and resources.

Friends and extended family

Most employers prefer to hire someone who is referred to them. Some companies even have attractive incentive schemes for employees who refer people for jobs. Tell everyone that you come into contact with that you’re looking for a new opportunity whether you’re at a family function, drinking with mates at the pub or doing weights at the gym.

The person you say hi and goodbye to at the train station or the person you make idle conversation with a family barbeque may hold the key to your future.

Once you have taken the all important step of making a contact, use touch points such as social networking tools, emails or telephone calls to keep in touch with your network to make sure they know you are enthusiastic and interested in working for their company.

If a job opportunity arises, you want to be on their radar and at the forefront of their mind. Like most things, it’s a numbers game so the more people who know you’re looking for a new opportunity, the more chances you have to land your dream job or work in your dream industry.