Building Your Online Presence
In this digital age, social media is a powerful tool for you — a passionate, talented job seeker — to find and secure new opportunities. Recruiters use social media to better inform their recruitment decisions.
Here is some advice to help you make the most out of social media:
1. Keeping your personal life away from recruiters
2. Building a unique brand for yourself
3. Using your professional network to discover new opportunities
4. Creating your own social media buzz
Step 1: Avoiding Negative Content
There are two types of social networks: your personal and professional one.
Your personal network (i.e. Facebook and Instagram) should be more private, since it contains details about your personal life — something you probably wouldn’t want a recruiter to see. Make sure you lock down your privacy settings so that recruiters can’t access details about your personal life you wouldn’t want them to know.
Your professional network (i.e. LinkedIn) should consist of connections, such as past colleagues, people who you’ve work alongside, and any other individuals you would like to involve within your career.
To check what recruiters can see when the Google you, try out this website:
www.brandyourself.com!
Step 2: Keeping Recruiters Interested
Your LinkedIn is a place where you can continue to show recruiters who you are, what your experience is, and what you’re passionate about. It should be a tool to help recruiters understand why they should consider you for their role.
Here are some things that recruiters might be looking for:
What if you are exploring opportunities in more than one industry? If the styles of the two industries are very different, it is still possible to balance your personal statement across both industries. A unique story showing interest in both can make you stand out! Definitely avoid having a personal statement and profile that is too generic.
Step 3: You seeking employers: using your network as a tool
Not only is social media a great place for you to impress recruiters, websites such as LinkedIn are great places to seek out interesting companies and their recruiters. Here are some tips on connecting with people on those platforms:
Step 4: Employers seeking you: using your network as impact
One of the biggest things that can come out of your social media account is that recruiters can start looking for you. A good way to make sure you catch a recruiter’s eye when they’re looking for potential new hires is building your “buzz” online. Here are some ways you can use your professional network to achieve that:
More Resources to Get Started
- Customizing LinkedIn URL : https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/topics/6042/6054/87
- LinkedIn Summary vs Resume Summary :
http://blog.linkedin.com/2007/07/15/5-tips-on-how-t/ - Putting a Human Voice in Your LinkedIn Headline : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130614194319-52594-put-a-human-voice-in-your-linkedin-headline
- Searching LinkedIn like a Pro : http://blog.linkedin.com/2007/07/15/5-tips-on-how-t/
- Tips for Informational Interviews : https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-tips-for-nonawkward-informational-interviews
- Using Twitter as a Networking Tool : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/twitter-job-search_n_7571260.html
- Some students also create online portfolio websites to showcase their work and past experiences. See examples here : https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/integrative-learning/eportfolios/examples-student-eportfolios
