Topic 3: Sell yourself-Professionally.

A couple years ago Justine Sacco, a 30 year old communications executive tweeted this before going on her holiday: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”

Next thing she knew, she was the subject of worldwide criticism and she had lost her job. (Ronson, 2016). This is not an isolated incident and reckless online behaviour can cost you as the graph below indicates:

Source: https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf

 

Now look at this one:

Source: https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf

If you’re applying for a job today, you can almost be certain that your potential employer would be trying to get a clear picture of you through your digital profile.

So the question is how do you build an authentic digital professional profile?

 

Presenting yourself online.

Whether it is Facebook or LinkedIn, it helps to have purpose in terms of what you post and how you present yourself. “You can only get across so much on a CV but with the use of social media you can pretty much throw yourself at someone.” (Harris, 2016)

A simple question you can ask yourself is, “If I was an employer going through my online profiles (pictures, posts, comments) would I want to hire me?”

The amount of information we provide in our bio is also key to retain attention and the video below speaks more on that. Check it out!

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-25217962

Use social networks like LinkedIn to establish connections, follow companies and build your network.

Unifying and linking up all your social media along with your CV, website etc. makes it easier for employers to access not only what they want but also what you want them to see.

Blog!

Exactly what I’m doing right now. Contemplating the relevance of my current module that requires me to blog made me realise that the content I talk about and the way I talk about it can make a strong impression on an employer.

Your CV might only be one of hundreds on the table but if it says that you write your own blog, it could very well help to stand out and they may even check it out in this early stage. (TheEmployable, 2016)

 

 

One of my lecturers expressed her opinion of how professional life should be separate from personal life. I could understand where she was coming from and her argument that as long as we were doing what we were supposed to do in terms of work, activities in our personal life should not play a role in determining the security of our job.

But at the same time if I was an employer I would want to get as much information as possible about my potential employees and social networks enable me to do that.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day as an employee you cannot determine how your potential employer might select you so to be on the safe side, maintaining an authentic professional digital profile is a good idea.

 

 

 

References:

Ronson, J. (2016). How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=1 [Accessed 9 Nov. 2016].

 

Harris, L. (2016). Using social media in your job search – Web Science MOOC. [online] Web Science MOOC. Available at: http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/websci/2014/03/13/ill-tweet-job-spec-snap-cv/ [Accessed 9 Nov. 2016].

 

TheEmployable. (2016). How blogging can help you get a job. [online] Available at: http://www.theemployable.com/index.php/2014/10/28/blogging-can-help-get-job/ [Accessed 9 Nov. 2016].

 

https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf