Last week I presented a seminar called Career Branding: Building Your Brand Online and Offline to members of the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). During the presentation, a member of the audience asked “Why do I really need to have an online presence?” I get asked this question quite often and I can appreciate the skepticism many have towards putting information about themselves online. But the reality is that many recruiters and hiring authorities are searching for candidates online and many are making screening decisions based on the information they do (or do not) find. According to a 2009 Execunet survey, 86% of recruiters surveyed do a “Google” search on candidates and reject 44% of candidates based on what they find out about them online. So doesn’t it make sense to take control of your online identity and manage your electronic footprint? Here are 4 questions that every person interested in managing their career should ask themselves.
- Do I exist online?
- Is my identity possibly being confused with others who have the same name?
- Is the information about me online relevant to my professional identity and is it accurate?
- Is there anything damaging about me online that a hiring manager could uncover?
Take a few minutes to perform an online identity checkup by putting your name in quotes into a major search engine. If your online presence is next to nothing, confusing, irrelevant, or detrimental to your career, consider branding or re-branding yourself using tools such as LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and GoogleMe to improve your career brand and better represent your unique value proposition.
