Taking ownership over your online identity is the fastest way to get hired (or the easiest way to get fired).
More employers are checking up on you, whether they’re Googling you or looking up your Twitter account, you’d better be presenting a good front. (Or, at least hiding those naked bar dancing photos.)
Brand yourself. Make yourself an Internet superstar, but not with a YouTube video or a porn site. Take a moment to register a Gmail e-mail address with your name, register your Facebook page, register your LinkedIn profile, and maybe even your own domain. Grab up a Twitter, a FriendFeed, and a WordPress blog to advertise yourself to your heart’s content – but make sure to password protect those posts about your boss’s incessant yammering. If you share these with an employer, use your name as your user name – not some cutesy tag you’ve used since Middle School. Get complete and utter strangers saying your name and reading your stuff.
No publicity (except the drunken, naked, ranting-about-your-boss kind) is bad publicity.
Using services like FriendFeed, Twitter, and others can make you incredibly hire-able – if you use them correctly. Blogging about your skill set or your interests adds dimension to an otherwise “flat” profile. Think of it this way: in person, you have only one face, one resume, one cover letter. Online – you have as many different personas as are useful. They all work for you to get your name out there and introduce you to potential employers (sometimes without you even knowing it).
Career-oriented services like LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, AfterCollege, Monster.com and others can be invaluable! Because these sites list you by how often and how much you update, you should keep your profiles on these sites current and visible at all times to get a constant flow of job offers.
Party Like A Rockstar, Job Hunt Like You’re A Nun… or is it the other way around?
Personal services like Facebook and MySpace can be very useful for networking, but when you’re primarily using them for personal purposes (i.e., to check up on that hottie from high school), you need to be careful to lock down anything you don’t want seen by someone who’ll be paying you thousands of dollars a year.
The fastest way to get your resume thrown in the recycle bin is to have embarrassing photos of yourself or over-personal blog posts whizzing around the internet (hopefully whizzing is just onomatopoeia here). Keep in mind that friend-oriented social services like Facebook and MySpace become liabilities the moment your drunk-ass stoner photos appear online. Not all of your “friends” will always have your best interests at heart. If you haven’t done so already, lock down your Facebook, LiveJournal and MySpace profiles to be “Friends only” except for your most basic information (and keep your public profile picture DECENT)! But, you should also create a public search page that is visible to your network. This will usually do the trick in keeping out nosy employers while keeping your name searchable.
Make sure that anything that is publicly visible is employer friendly or at least explainable – if you Twitter about work and complain about your boss, not only do you risk your current boss reading it, but you also risk future bosses reading it. Unless either of these people are incredibly cool cats, your ass is gonna get blacklisted.
Go Google Yourself
Find out what you look like online – do a Google search with your name in quotes: “Nick Armstrong”. Then do one with your city and state: “Nick Armstrong” Fort Collins, CO. You’ll find the more localized you get, the higher chance you have of finding yourself.
Take advantage of privacy tools on your blog – password protect sensitive posts, protect your Twitter updates, lock down your Facebook profile. Be as careful as you need to be in order to feel safe and in order to hide “damaging” things from prying eyes.
It’s your life – your name. Take control. Brand yourself!
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Psychotic Resumes 101
Psychotic Resumes is a Gen-Y (Millennial) job survival guide created by Nick Armstrong to help new professionals build stronger resumes and cover letters so they can find a better job. It's our goal to help Gen-Y do better at interviews and on the job, promoting strong leadership, entrepreneurship, and common sense.
Owning Your Online Identity
More employers are checking up on you, whether they’re Googling you or looking up your Twitter account, you’d better be presenting a good front. (Or, at least hiding those naked bar dancing photos.)
Brand yourself. Make yourself an Internet superstar, but not with a YouTube video or a porn site. Take a moment to register a Gmail e-mail address with your name, register your Facebook page, register your LinkedIn profile, and maybe even your own domain. Grab up a Twitter, a FriendFeed, and a WordPress blog to advertise yourself to your heart’s content – but make sure to password protect those posts about your boss’s incessant yammering. If you share these with an employer, use your name as your user name – not some cutesy tag you’ve used since Middle School. Get complete and utter strangers saying your name and reading your stuff.
No publicity (except the drunken, naked, ranting-about-your-boss kind) is bad publicity.
Using services like FriendFeed, Twitter, and others can make you incredibly hire-able – if you use them correctly. Blogging about your skill set or your interests adds dimension to an otherwise “flat” profile. Think of it this way: in person, you have only one face, one resume, one cover letter. Online – you have as many different personas as are useful. They all work for you to get your name out there and introduce you to potential employers (sometimes without you even knowing it).
Career-oriented services like LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, AfterCollege, Monster.com and others can be invaluable! Because these sites list you by how often and how much you update, you should keep your profiles on these sites current and visible at all times to get a constant flow of job offers.
Personal services like Facebook and MySpace can be very useful for networking, but when you’re primarily using them for personal purposes (i.e., to check up on that hottie from high school), you need to be careful to lock down anything you don’t want seen by someone who’ll be paying you thousands of dollars a year.
The fastest way to get your resume thrown in the recycle bin is to have embarrassing photos of yourself or over-personal blog posts whizzing around the internet (hopefully whizzing is just onomatopoeia here). Keep in mind that friend-oriented social services like Facebook and MySpace become liabilities the moment your drunk-ass stoner photos appear online. Not all of your “friends” will always have your best interests at heart. If you haven’t done so already, lock down your Facebook, LiveJournal and MySpace profiles to be “Friends only” except for your most basic information (and keep your public profile picture DECENT)! But, you should also create a public search page that is visible to your network. This will usually do the trick in keeping out nosy employers while keeping your name searchable.
Make sure that anything that is publicly visible is employer friendly or at least explainable – if you Twitter about work and complain about your boss, not only do you risk your current boss reading it, but you also risk future bosses reading it. Unless either of these people are incredibly cool cats, your ass is gonna get blacklisted.
Find out what you look like online – do a Google search with your name in quotes: “Nick Armstrong”. Then do one with your city and state: “Nick Armstrong” Fort Collins, CO. You’ll find the more localized you get, the higher chance you have of finding yourself.
Take advantage of privacy tools on your blog – password protect sensitive posts, protect your Twitter updates, lock down your Facebook profile. Be as careful as you need to be in order to feel safe and in order to hide “damaging” things from prying eyes.
It’s your life – your name. Take control. Brand yourself!