Improving Your “Online Profile”!

orDo you really know

“what’s up” with your online “reputation”?

With David Fisher

This session has been carefully designed for:Professional Engineers

Ontario (PEO)Oakville Chapter

Session SummaryWhat does my “Online Profile” have to do with my Career?

Session OverviewGetting Started

Human Resource Methods The traditional approach vs. emerging practices

Why does an Employer harvest my information?What tools and services are they using?

Fixing your ReputationTaking control of your online presence

Introduction

Career Development

What can “you” do?

Current Tools and Services

• Who am I? (David Fisher)• President of Professional Development for

Everyone Inc. and LearnForge.ca

• Consultant and Facilitator

Getting StartedSession Overview - Introduction

WIIFM - What’s in it for me/you?1. Perspective – what employers need2. Tips and Tricks – tools and processes3. How to repair your “Reputation”

David FisherCareer Counsellor – 6 yrs

Job Search Consultant – 3 yrsRecruiter / Head Hunter – 1 yr

Human Resources Consultant – 12 yrs

• What are we hoping to share today?• Experience helping people prepare for Career

Planning (resumes, cover letters, & interviews)

• Experience screening candidates and hiring best fit employees (resume review/filtering, phone screening, & face to face interviews)

• Knowledge of tools, tricks, and current processes for human resource planning (job postings, web services, & electronic tools)

Online Profile-Social Networking Sites/Options:We have an incredible number of sites and options available for social networking!

There are still too many for us to focus in on today. Let’s try to filter this one more time!

This list looks better. Let’s look at a few of these sites.

Facebook’s Value: Facebook shows the

personal side of people! Facebook can access a lot of

people at once.

Facebook’s Downside: There is a lot of “cause” talk,

but not a lot of business. Much of what happens on

Facebook is mind-numbingly dumb.

LinkedIn’s Value: Great connections. Professional profiles. LinkedIn is “all business.”

LinkedIn’s Downside: Hard to navigate. All business.

Twitter’s Value: Variety of interests. Brevity - only 140

characters. Easily “follow” and

“unfollow” Global reach

Twitter’s Downside: Can be a huge distraction and a huge time waster. Learning curve.

Social Media - Online ProfileWhat tools do you use today?

What’s the big deal about your Online Profile?

• EVERYTHING is a document • Blog postings, status updates, comments, tweets, email,

presentations; even recorded spoken messages (i.e., voicemail)

• Almost everything is discoverable• All files, memos, notes, drafts and records can be

retrieved and, if required, may need to be turned over to the government or a plaintiff

• So, how would it look if your words... • ...were taken out of context or with the meanings

twisted?• Answer: any poorly written, negative, biased, unclear,

misleading or incorrect statements can be used against you

• Your “profile”• Past or current “postings”• Any “pictures”• Your friends

• What assumptions will an employer make about you?

• What Social sites are you using?

• What can be seen/discovered?

• What will an employer think?

Your Online Profile…Who wants to be “Googled?”

THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH EMERGING APPROACHES

Yesterday’s HR MethodsComparing yesterday to tomorrow!

Some or all of these methods may be

used during a candidate search or succession planning

exercise.

Start • Job search begins

Post • Job posted (visible job market)

Gather • Applications and resumes

Sort • Resumes sorted and filtered

Contact • Candidates contacted

Interview • Phone or “face to face”

Check • Reference checks

Offer • Offer to qualified candidates

Start• “LinkedIn” search for candidates

Post• Job “blogged” or on “Facebook”

Gather• Electronically scanned and filtered

Sort • Profiles searched through “Google”

Contact• Candidates are monitored

Interview• Interviews held maybe with “Skype”

Check• Online profile checked again

Offer• Offer to qualified candidates

Reppler conducted a study with Lab42 among a random sample of 300 individuals involved in the hiring process at their company. Oct 23, 2011

41% 40%

29% 28% 27%22% 21% 19%

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%What are they looking to find on the negative side?

Why would an Employer harvest my information?

• Attitude

• Competence

• Communication Skills

• Appearance

• Appropriateness

What are they looking to find on the positive side?Are you professional?

Watch What You Post…Employers shared the strangest things they’ve discovered on job candidates’ or current employees’ social media profiles, including:• Candidate’s profile included links to an escort service• Candidate posted a photo of a warrant for his arrest• Candidate posted an exercise video for grandmothers• Candidate had sued his wife for shooting him in the head• Candidate featured a pig as his closest friend• Candidate posted his dental exam results• Candidate bragged about driving drunk and not getting

caught on several occasions• Candidate was actively involved in a demonic cult• Candidate posted Sasquatch pictures he had taken

• Everything on the Internet can be found

• People can’t find what isn’t there

• See what employers will discover

• Decide how to react• Clean up negative stuff• Leave positive stuff

First StepsWhat can I do?

What can I do? Clean up your main accounts

• Learn how to use the privacy settings• “Lock down” what people can see• Watch postings to your wall and any tags• Untag inappropriate images and make your profile

“employer-friendly”

• On Twitter, anyone can view updates• Tweet professionally & respectfully.• Consider using “Protected Tweets”

• Complete your profile• Remove stale “Connections”• Choose quality over quantity• Move friends to Facebook

Use “Privacy Settings” on Facebook and Twitter

Clean up your main accounts Complete your profiles Maintain a blog Create a Twitter account Request recommendations Create an online portfolio

website Monitor and optimize your

accounts monthly

Questions and Answers