Next time you’re busily blabbing into the Blogosphere - keying your most intimate secrets into what you fancy is deepest, darkest cyberspace…consider this. One in five employers find information about job candidates on the web and nearly 60% say it influences their job decisions. And 25% of HR decision makers reject candidates based on personal information found online.
You’re hoping I made that statistic up? Sorry to disappoint…but these – ahem! – end-of-party pictures… or the grim details of that stag-night slide into debauchery…or even the low-down on what you really think of your boss, his wife and their new baby…if you’ve posted any of it anywhere on the Web, it will likely come back to haunt you.
Online Recruitment wants you to take better care of your NetRep – that is, if you fancy the idea of future employment. They quote a research report released by the business social network Viadeo. Apparently, more than 2,000 consumers and over 600 employers were surveyed by Viadeo and the findings were as outlined above.
This isn’t to say that your online self is necessarily going to screw your employment chances. The same survey concluded that information found online can work in an applicant’s favour – as long as the content is appropriate and presented correctly. In fact, 13% of HR decision makers chose candidates they might otherwise have rejected, because of additional positive information they found about them online.
The solution? Consider using a social networking site to promote a professional image of yourself on the Net. A tough job, maybe…but not impossible! And check out Viadeo – it’s as good a place as any to start.
You will be Googled…you have been warned!
4 comments:
You know, in my interview at Geronimo Communications this week I mentioned I had a Blog, but gave it some consideration beforehand, checking it out before I left to see there was nothing that would work against me.
It is one of those things that I'm surprised has taken so long to happen, possible and actual employees (and any third party with vested interest in you) checking out your digi-persona.
Web 2.0 (sorry, had to mention it) is the reason. Interactivity and the touch-feely world of social media makes people open up, and their happy to do so.
Attention is also vehemently seeked, but perhaps there is a certaing kind of attention (bar the obvious sorts that we hear about on the news!), a certain kind of judgement of what one publishes on-line, that people don't want.
I know what your answer would be, don't bloody do a blog then! I would agree with it.
If your going to fill your MySpace, Bebo etc with crap, be aware some people will be consuming it not just for fun, the crap will be all over you as a result.
I think the points you made above are frightening for us students. I mentioned the other day that I have two web reps as a result of the MSc PR. Firstly there is the eternal, never going to or wanting to grow up student on Bebo and then there is the aspiring PR consultant who writes about PR and technology on my blog. As strange as it may seem I wouldn't mind a potential employer checking out my Bebo as that is who I am, a fun loving girl having a laugh with friends. If they dont want someone with a personality then that will be their downfall in the PR industry. Then again, I don't really have that many skeletons in my closet but if I was an ex pornstar I would be worried about the points you have made.
I can understand why you thought twice about mentioning your blog to a potential employer.
I suppose past experience has taught me that whatever views/rants/comments I put out there may one day come back to haunt me. In fact, that's already happened once or twice....
In my time I've written some fairly controversial stuff and I often wonder how it might trip me up today if, say, I decided I wanted to run for election as MP for Dunblane!
Debz -
I think you're taking the right attitude re your blogs. I've followed them both and , as far as I'm concerned, they accurately illustrated who you are - a huge fun-loving personality and a very capable MSc PR student who would be a valuable addition to any agency.
I don't believe there's anything in your personal one which singles you out in any way from your contemporaries.
It's when bloggers treat blogs like an extension of their bedrooms and bathrooms - private environments in which they say and do pretty much anything they like without fear of disapproval or censure - that they risk undermining that version of themselves which they want others (particularly potential employers) to see.
Not the sort of mistake I would expect you, or any of our fellow students, to make.
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