Category Archives: social media

October 27, 2016 · 9:44 am

How Long is your Digital Shadow?

I have heard the term “digital revolution” about 10 times this week and I have to say it is wearing a little thin…..I know it’s a big deal but what does it really mean to the average job seeker?

It means that you have many more sources to find out information on industries, people and jobs. We used to have job sites like Monster and now companies post jobs on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a whole bunch of industry specific lists like AngelList, Freshgigs and TalentEgg.

You can find out about actual companies at sites like Glassdoor. It started out as a place where employees could post salary information anonymously and then quickly morphed into a place where people talked about their interview and employment experiences. This can be handy but like any user fed information source, it is buyer beware. Generally speaking, only the very happy and the very angry/sad/bitter people share their thoughts and feelings. Definitely take info from Glassdoor with a grain of salt.

Here is the real impact point of this digital business: your resume. When your resume is reviewed, chances are, the person reviewing it is looking you up on social media at the same time.

What happens when you search google for your name? (Hint: use quotation marks to get it right i.e. “Laura Machan”).

Check google images and google news (different tabs on the search page).

You need to see and be aware of what others will see when they look you up. Are there lots of people with same name? Are there pictures of you doing weird things? News clippings about some neighbourhood shenanigans?

If there are less-than-professional items, there is not a lot you can do except contact the site owner and ask for material to be taken down.

You also want to able to explain what was happening at the time to provide some context and alleviate any concerns in an interview situation or maybe even in your cover letter.

The better thing way to solve this is to get out and do more positive activities. Volunteer, speak at conferences, get involved in kids sports. Gradually, those images will push the junk to page six or seven of google and most people lose interest after page three.

Take a few minutes this weekend to look yourself up. You might be surprised by what you see.

How to Make the Most of an Internship

Many people have co-op terms or internships as part of their academic courses. They are fantastic learning experiences but there are some extra things you can do to maximize their impact from a career perspective.

Make sure you add the your title and company to your LinkedIn profile. Add some bullet points about your tasks so that other people can get a feel for what you are doing.

Invite people you are working with to join your network. You can also invite people from outside the company. If you get to shadow someone at a meeting or a conference, pick up business cards and send out the invites.

Your LinkedIn invitations have more impact if you personalize them. If you mention where you met the person and how much you liked their presentation/speech/questions, you will up the chances of them accepting your invite.

Ask if people in your work group will provide a recommendation. Basically, you are asking if they will say a couple of nice things about you that will be visible on your profile.

Start a list in your phone of training and learning opportunities so you can record them as you go. By the end of your term, you won’t remember what happened at the beginning. These are valuable bits to add to your resume when you are done. You want to be able to reference not just what you did, but what you learned. That’s the sort of thing future employers want to see.

When you finish an internship, make sure you note that on your LinkedIn profile. You might also want to take a few minutes to write some thank you notes to your boss and your boss’s boss. Mention how much you learned and how much you enjoyed being part of the team.

None of these items are going to make an internship better but they will help to make sure it is a solid starting point for a satisfying career.

So…..are we exclusive?

I was talking about LinkedIn with a group of people on Monday evening. One of the big questions seemed to be about invitations. When someone invites you to connect, should you accept?

Some people only accept invites from people they know. Others, like people in my profession, accept all invitations.

The answer lies in why you got on LinkedIn in the first place. Is it a place to hang out with former colleagues? A place to develop your consulting reputation? Maybe you want to grow your community of influence, so that when you throw a highly pithy comment out there – you get lots of feedback.

Most of us keep our profiles current and polished so we can get noticed. We want prospective employers or clients to find us and look us over. The way we get “found” is by broadening our networks either by accepting invitations or joining groups.

Here’s a possible strategy:

Take a look at your invites once every week or so. You don’t have to do it right away. They will not evaporate.
If you don’t know the person, click on their name. Maybe that will jog your memory or you will realize that they know a lot of the same people you do.
Decide if you want to accept, ignore or procrastinate a little longer.

So, when you are deciding whether your network is going small and exclusive or open and diverse, think about how you want to be treated. When you reach out to someone, you want to be acknowledged, right?

Category Archives: social media

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