Internet-proof yourself for the summer job search
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009Seeing as its July, most high school and college students have already found a summer job. However, there’s always a bunch who are still looking, or kindof sort of looking while they actually enjoy their summer holiday. How do you show your potential employer you’re better than the rest, a straight shooter, gung ho? Didn’t you know? You use these tips. Duhhh. Us young folks like to broadcast our lives online: we facebook, we tweet, we stumble, we email. The interweb dimension is a place where your potential employer can gain valuable info about you. Who? Yes, you.
Avoid these common mistakes that are DEAD GIVE-AWAYS you’re not hiring material.
Professional email address. You’re not the only one that created their first email address when they were in the fifth grade. Back then, mollymcfee2cute4luv@hotmail.com sounded like a username you were lucky to get your hands on. Get with it. Employers see things like immature email addresses and smell the reek of unprofessionalism. All it takes is 5 minutes to create a new email address that sounds a little more grown up, like yourname.yourlastname@gmail.com
Email signature. While we’re on the topic, an email signature can be a quick way to jazz up your serious professional demeanour. Only real grown-ups have email signatures, so by having one, you look like one too. This is where you can put your phone number, your Linkedn contact info, and other relevant internet modes of communicating with you.
Twitter. Ah Twitter. Such a cool creation. A forum where people are so honest about who they are in 140 characters or less can be dangerously tempting. Think of that tweet you wrote at work (when you had a job) about how you couldn’t believe they were paying you money, if your boss only knew you were wasting your day on twitter. If your name is in any way associated to your twitter account, you can be found. Be yourself on Twitter, but realize that those tweets are up there forever for anyone who wants to snoop.
Facebook. If you haven’t done this already then maybe you really don’t want to find a job. We’re talking about limiting your profile so that only your friends can see those pictures of you passed out on the laundry room floor with your shoes still on after a late night of partying. Better yet, make sure you’re not tagged in the pic. The best? Make sure these pictures don’t get online in the first place.
Google yourself. A final test you should run yourself through is the classic boredom/vanity trick of googling yourself. This is a great way to see what would come up about you, if anything, when an employer types in your name. Your facebook page will probably appear. Click on it to see how much a complete stranger can find out about who you are. If you are trying to promote yourself online then it’s up to you to make sure that there is no questionable content about you floating around.
A good thing to ask yourself when going through any content associated with you is: Would I Want My Potential Employer To See That?
Now that you’ve internet proofed your rep and made yourself look like a dapper young professional you can get back to stumbling random snack foods. We all do it. It’s just about cleaning up the crumbs.
