Assessing and Cleaning Up Your Online Presence Before Job Hunting

July 13, 2018

Your online presence, or what you share on social platforms, matters. For many job seekers, they’ve been creating and sharing social content for at least a decade. However, maybe they’ve only been crafting resumes and cover letters for a few years, so there’s some disproportion when it comes to a professional reputation. While resumes and cover letters are definitely important material for hiring managers, so is your online presence since most will do a quick search of your name online.

How to Assess & Clean Up Your Online Presence

Don’t worry. While you may not be able to go back and redo some decisions in your college years, you can change what to publicize to the public, including your prospective employers. Here’s a simple guide for how to assess and clean up your online presence.

Do a Search for Yourself

Before you go through your social media profiles, do a search so you can see how much work you have to do. Be sure you see what a connection sees in addition to what a person who you are not connected with is able to view. Don’t assume that a hiring manager will not be a connection. If they request a connection on LinkedIn, you will want to accept it, so you’ll have to consider what content you want to share with your connections as well.

Content to Clean Up

Now that you’ve made notes about some things you want to clean up with your social accounts, plan to address these issues:

  • No bad-mouthing co-workers or employers, past or present.
  • No pictures or posts that clearly illustrate irresponsible behavior.
  • No dirty laundry rants or “TMI” posts.
  • No fanatical political content.

While these may seem like strict rules to follow, when you are looking for a job, it’s more important to be mature and professional than to express every emotion or thought that occurs during your day. A company will consider your professional experience first, but they also want to hire a person who fits within their culture.

Content to Enhance Your Talents

After all of the rules, you shouldn’t feel as though you can’t express anything. In fact, you can do a lot on your social platforms that can aid in your job search:

  • Create a personal website or blog to showcase your talent, knowledge or perspective.
  • Make all your social profile pictures the same for easy identification.
  • Add details of volunteer work, charity interests, hobbies, certifications or licenses, etc.

There are several ways to express yourself in a professional and mature way that will allow employers to see your qualifications and your personality without getting distracted by some irrelevant posts from the past.

Get Noticed for the Job You Want

Find the jobs you want and get help with your resume or other career questions by contacting MS-IL Staffing and Packaging.

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