Don't Let Your Online Persona Undermine Your Resume

Do you have digital dirt?

You should hope not. Digital dirt will doom your job search no matter how great your resume is.

Many companies use search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN to conduct background checks on potential job candidates, especially new grads looking for their real jobs. ‘Digital dirt’ – unflattering personal information floating around the Internet – not only looks immature and unprofessional, but it will destroy your chances of landing an interview.

If you have a profile on sites like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, or LiveJournal, you should think twice about what you’re writing and posting. Recruiters are given a lot of freedom in how they recruit; there’s no formal policy about using the Internet to research candidates. You shouldn’t be under the impression that they’re out of touch with cyberspace.

A recent survey, published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that 50% of employers surveyed reported using some sort of online technology to screen candidates, and 7 percent said they do not currently use this screening method, but plan to start.

Another survey by ExecuNet, an executive job-search and networking organization, revealed that 75% of its 102 executive recruiter respondents use search engines to find out information about candidates. Furthermore, 26% of recruiters have eliminated candidates because of information they found online.

Jim Anderson, an HR professional with a leading international financial institution says, “I am continually shocked at the amount of job applicants who have unsightly personal information floating around the Internet. Explicit photographs, coarse language, references to drugs, drinking, and sex… why they make this information public, I don’t know.”

Clearly, researching candidates through social networking sites is fairly typical and is only a growing phenomenon. Employers look at more than your resume; they want to know if you’re involved with anything that goes against the values of their corporation.

A lot of the time candidates might not even know when they’ve been passed up for an interview because an HR professional saw something about them online.

What to do?

1. Google yourself regularly. Go to Google, Yahoo, Msn, and other search engines and check to see what’s out there about yourself. If you find something, contact the owner of the site and ask that it be removed.
   
   
2. Bury the dirt. If you can’t get rid of your “digital dirt,” bury it in positive information. As search engines usually rank their search results based on the number of sites that link to those pages, the more links you have, the higher the search ranking. Ensure that the pages you want recruiters to see have more links (and more traffic) than the dirt-filled ones.
   
   
3. Monitor your presence on the Internet with sites like www.pubsub.com. Unlike traditional search engines, which store information, PubSub watches for new matching information as it appears. It will alert you by email when your name is mentioned online (websites, newsgroups, blogs, etc.)

By Melanie Joy Douglas, Monster.ca