If your lucky, nothing. But if you’re like everyone else there are a few random references, Facebook profiles, and or forum posts floating around in cyberspace that Google has indexed.
If you are unlucky there are some pictures of you dancing on the bar semi dressed or passed out drunk with your friends in poses we can’t discuss here. This is a family blog. We have our standards.
Here’s a quick question for you: Do you really want your career and bank account balance to rely on pure luck? I hope not. Instead of having no information popping up as the best case scenario when your employer Googles you, you should create what I call a “cloud of corroboration”.
Creating Your Cloud of Corroboration
According to The Free Dictionary, corroborate means to strengthen or support with other evidence; make more certain. That’s what you want to do with any potential employers who might Google you. Make them more certain you are the right choice.
Employers invest a lot of time and energy into hiring who they consider to be the right employee. If a new hire doesn’t work out that means they have to start the process over again. Not only that, but it’s kind of a knock to the hiring manager’s ego. No hiring manager wants to be known for hiring “bad apples.” So they need as much reassurance as possible that you are the right choice.
Even in good times there are usually 2-3 equally great qualified candidates. Nowadays, that number is probably closer to 5-8. What do employers do when they have so many good choices to pick from? They look for reasons to eliminate people. Don’t give them one.
The Friend Of My Friend Is My Friend
One of the first places an employer looks for more information on job candidates is Google. If you’re smart that can actually work in your favor because you can influence what Google says about you by creating a cloud of corroboration through social media.
Google seems to really, really like sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Having an account at each of these sites is essential to successfully finding a job these days. Besides the huge career networking potential of these sites you get to control your personal brand through them.
With almost half a billion users it seems like Facebook is everywhere. It is, including in the HR manager’s office. So if you’re already on Facebook, then make sure your Facebook profile privacy settings are correct. Do a google search on “fired for Facebook” and you will get over 19 millions results. You never know how many results you would get for “not hired because of Facebook” if you could get a true measurement.
In spite of the above risks, if you are not on Facebook you should be. It gives you a great way to monitor a lot of information about yourself that you would not otherwise know is floating around the internet.
With Facebook now open to businesses with Facebook Pages, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. So jump into the drivers seat and control the access to your information that employers have.
Before Facebook went mainstream I used to call Linkedin Facebook for grownups. A better description is that its Facebook for career professionals. Why should college kids have all the fun? The difference is that Linkedin cuts right to the chase. You are there to network, meet other professionals, show your skills, and get the necessary business connections to be successful.
So is everyone else. It’s a great way to reconnect with former coworkers and make contacts with future ones. It has quickly become the second best place I like to go to get information about companies. The first is Glassdoor.
When I first heard of Twitter I thought, “Do we really need another social media site?” The answer is no. But Twitter is a pretty good way to stay up on current trends in your professional and social circles.
It also allows you to be able to stay relevant and be interesting in any setting by quickly browsing the trends. You can organize your contacts into lists and send different tweets to different lists.
Unemployed Help has recently signed up for a Twitter account so stay tuned on how that experiment goes. I’ll make a series of posts on the trials and errors of the Twitter experiment here to keep you up to date.
Control what information Google provides to your potential employer by controlling your cloud of corroboration. You want your resume, your interview and your Google profile to all say the same thing to a hiring manager: “Pick me. I’m the one.”
Follow the Unemployed Help Twitter experiment by clicking ===> @unemployees
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