Remember...everything you do online is like a web CV.
Beware your internet footprint!!
This is so, so true when job hunting. It is increasingly
common for employers to look up applicants online and although it is especially
true of LinkedIn, it is not at all unusual for employers to look
further...Facebook, anything else they find.
When we put anything on the web it can go much further than
we might have initially thought when we posted it…the web is not described as
viral for no good reason!!
It’s a good idea to be very careful not to risk leaving a
bad impression of ourselves or making ourselves look daft by some of our posts
and internet activity ( like photographs)…we may never discover if it cost us
a job opportunity.
- Be very careful in blog and website entries and other social media etc that you do not suggest you cannot spell!! Make sure that what you post are well word processed, correctly formatted as far as you know how to do so and run the spell check!! Getting involved in other peoples blogs by contributing to them is great, especially if they are bogs which might help your job search by having made a connection but again be careful what you post and how you post it...the quality of your content is really important for your image
- Twitter...actually I am not a fan of Twitter and have so far managed to avoid it even though I have adopted many social platforms I never imagined myself using …while I am thought to be the chattiest person going, churning out small comments on everything I do and think does not appeal to me at all. However, Twitter seems to pay a big part in many peoples lives and the rest of their internet activity is often linked to it…e.g. your Twitter account being linked to Facebook…just be careful regarding the content of your tweets. Sometimes simply because a comment is short it makes it almost easier for it to be insensitive and or silly.
- Facebook…even though you most probably think of it as your personal space, think of the bigger picture and remember that everything posted about or by you is your internet footprint…be careful what information you share publicly and what you allow people to publicly share with you on your page
- YouTube…now while I cannot imagine ever having the skills to post my own videos. I know that many people do. Somehow, perhaps because it is not such a common skill as being able to use Facebook and Twitter, some people stick up videos and then almost forget them...or post them and assume that because it’s a video it just must be great and good…again be careful about the quality of your content.
The internet is indeed a great boon to modern day job
seekers (yes that includes those who expected to have been on their way to
retirement by now and who instead are job hunting)…but its best to remember
that everything we post or gets posted about us is giving an image of us to a
potential boss who sees it…make sure it’s a good image
Valerie
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