Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Protecting your Online Image: To Hire or Not to Hire

I was reading an article by Denitsa Tsekova, Yahoo Money, about "Survey highlights a key consideration before applying for your next job". It talked about reputation management companies that you can hire (if you have the means). They specializes in monitoring, analyzing, and addressing online content related to their clients. The article spoke about employers checking their potential hires' social media presence. There are companies that removes negative online search results about you. Yes! it's on demand.

Seven in 10 employers check potential hires’ social media presence, according to a CareerBuilder survey from last year.

Now the question is, do you erase your online footprint entirely or just polish it? In today's digital age, your online presence has become equivalent to your resume. "Online screening is skyrocketing."

Having a killer resume and cover letter is no longer sufficient to secure your dream job. Despite the challenge, candidates/applicants should not be discouraged and instead focus on presenting an honest and comprehensive overview of their skills and abilities when applying for a job.

“Companies are not searching social media looking to hire people,” Lee said. “They're searching social media to verify the backgrounds of people who they've already found.”

Source:

https://money.yahoo.com/job-career-online-screening-reputation-155558910.html  Accessed 05/02/23

7 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your job hunting findings, Linette ^_^

    To answer the question '...erase your online footprint entirely or just polish it?", I say definitely 'polish' :-)

    Not just because one's online footprint cannot be erased entirely, but I think, like credit history, not have a digital footprint is worse than having a dubious or contentious digital footprint!

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  2. Yes, a lot of potential employers do look for your social media content. A personal experience of this was when I applied to volunteer. During an orientation they specifically stated that social media would be looked for in order to accept qualifying participants. Not only employers look for that but also others.

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  3. I have mixed feeling about this. On one hand people use social media for doing social things which many are independent of their work ethic. People have different sides to themselves some you may agree with and others you don't. They don't all necessarily have anything to do with how one will perform a specific job. On the other hand, sometimes what you present is exactly who you are. This is why I'm not a huge fan of social media as I once was. Tough one.

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  4. I don't have much online footprint, because It is nonsense to share your own idea with people not being able to accommodate other voice. I see a lot of people blamed by having a opposite opinion even though it is correct.

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  5. My footprint is pretty minimal to begin with, my reckless days on twitter have long ended many moons ago. But even with that, I think I'll just polish up a bit!

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  6. This is why having no digital footprint is a positive sometime because you never know what posts of yours are considered problematic and negative.

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  7. Thank you for sharing the importance of managing one's online presence in today's digital age. Overall, I agree that having a strong online presence can be an important factor in securing one's dream job. However, it is equally important to present an honest and comprehensive overview of one's skills and abilities to potential employers.

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