Anything and everything you do online leaves a digital footprint that employers can follow to determine whether or not you’d make a suitable employee.
For that matter, admissions officials might be interested in checking out your online presence — pictures and forum comments — before deciding if you warrant a letter of acceptance.
Fortunately, there’s a way that you can build a good online presence in this digital age. Learning the ins and outs of doing so is important because your online reputation counts for a lot.
What follows, therefore, is a primer on job hunting in the digital age, and how reputation, resumes and video interviews can help you succeed inside and outside of the classroom.
Reputation Matters
Building a strong online reputation is more important than you might think, particularly when you consider the following statistics:
- 75% of recruiters will conduct research online to learn about applicants
- 70% of recruiters have turned down applicants based on what they discovered online
Whether you’re a student pursuing an advanced degree or a graduate looking for work or an experienced professional, a LinkedIn account is a must. You can use it not only to market yourself online, but also to look for career opportunities or for network-building opportunities.
When you consider that 89% of all recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn and that a mere 36% of job seekers are active on LinkedIn, it becomes clear that a presence on the popular social networking site is a good idea.
LinkedIn will help you to establish a strong online reputation, but there are other things that you need to keep in mind such as the difference between private and public profiles. For the former, you need to ensure that you restrict who can access them, get rid of any inappropriate photos or comments, and refrain for using your real name for your username. For the latter, you need to create separate accounts with your real name as the username and post industry-specific content.
Video Resume
In this digital age, you definitely need a video resume. Around nine in 10 resumes are presented in the traditional format, so going with a video resume can instantly differentiate you from the crowd.
As for programs you can use to create your own video resume, the following are three options:
- YouTube
- Vine
- Vimeo
Video Interview
You need to take a video interview as seriously as you would an in-person interview. Consider that 33% of bosses know within the first 90 seconds if they are going to hire a candidate, 53% of surveyed HR managers say that they use video interviews quite often, and 13% of hiring managers plan to use video interviews even more.
As empowering as the Internet can be if used correctly, it can hurt your career plans if your digital trail leads to anything questionable. So establish a good online reputation, showcase your video resume and prepare yourself for video interviews in order to bolster your job prospects.
