For those who have not yet jumped into the social
media pool, or who have only dipped in their big toe (a LinkedIn profile, for
example), a job search presents the perfect opportunity – in fact almost a
compulsion – to dive into the deep end. Today’s
work environment demands a degree of social media savvy – you can keep up and
thrive, or get left behind.
Why expand your online presence? Put simply, when looking for a job, you want
people to find you – and be impressed with what they see. The image you present online is your way of
introducing yourself – your first impression to potential employers. A majority of recruiters, both corporate and
third party, use LinkedIn and other social media sites to source candidates for
open positions, so if you’re not fully utilizing these sites you’re missing out
on potential opportunities. In
addition, most companies (85-90%) check online for information on
candidates. You’ve probably heard that
you should Google yourself to see what you find; most often people think only
of negative results, such as college party pictures, or a convicted felon with
the same name as you. But having no
online presence, or an incomplete online identity, can be equally as damaging;
you’ll be perceived as dated (not good if you’re an older candidate), not
relevant to your field, or you’ll just be invisible and passed over.
So the first step is to do an assessment of your current
online presence. You will of course want
to clean up any “digital dirt,” or inappropriate material you find. Remove pictures or comments, change privacy
settings on personal pages, and even consider using a service for assistance in
online presence management. Then it’s essential
to increase your positive search results by expanding your presence. Be sure you’re participating in the top three
social media sites – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. On LinkedIn, have a powerful and dynamic
profile (view the presentation Connections: Using Social Networking in your Job
Search on our alumni
career page, for specific tips), join groups, and
connect with key people in your targeted companies/industries (like RIT alumni;
more in a bit). Set up a Facebook
account, a separate one for professional purposes if you’d like it separate
from a personal one, or use the lists feature to separate your personal and
business contacts. Connect with friends
and business colleagues, follow company pages, and showcase any projects,
part-time work, community activities or other highlights you’d like people to
see. Set up a Twitter account; follow
industry experts and companies, connect with recruiters and others in your field,
and demonstrate that you are current with the latest technology.
Whether you’re currently employed or looking for
your next challenge, it’s important to showcase your expertise and
accomplishments. There are many ways to
create an online portfolio to show your work; use LinkedIn applications to add
videos, slideshows or articles to your profile, or build your own website with
work samples, links to articles, information on awards received, and you can
even start a blog, to post commentaries on your industry or field. There are many sites to help you make a
website and profile your work, including http://about.me,
http://flavors.me,
www.behance.net,
www.wordpress.com,
www.weebly.com,
www.slideshare.net,
and www.box.net.
In expanding your online presence, your other goal
is to find people. You want to connect
with people who can help connect you to the decision makers in your targeted
companies. Cast a wide net with this;
‘friend’ old high school and college friends on Facebook, connect with former
business colleagues on LinkedIn, and follow industry experts and professional
association members on Twitter.
You also want to connect with RIT alumni, and there
are many ways to do this. If you’re in
an area where one exists, join and become active in an Alumni Chapter (https://www.rit.edu/alumni/groups/). Even if you attend a sports or
social event, you’re still able to network with other RIT alumni. The Alumni Network (https://www.rit.edu/alumni/alumninetwork/)
through
the Tiger Locator lets you search on a number of criteria, including geographic
location, major, field, and company, for alumni to whom you can then reach out. The RIT Professional Network is a tab in Job
Zone, our online job listing system, and is a database of alumni willing to
connect with other alumni for informational interviews; you can search by
field, company or major. In Facebook,
you can search for and join groups from RIT.
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with RIT alumni. Join the alumni groups – the Official RIT
Alumni group, the unofficial group (started before the official group), the
group from your college, and our RIT Career Services group; once a group
member, you’re then free to interact with other members, some of whom may work
at your targeted companies. Of course
other groups will be helpful, and may have alumni members as well – you can
join up to 50 groups, so be sure to join a variety of industry related as well
as RIT related groups. Under the Network
tab (across the top), click alumni and you’ll see a list of RIT alumni, for the
date range you specify, as well as where they live, where they work and what
they do. You can also do an Advanced People Search,
which is helpful if you’re looking for alumni at a specific company. Once you have prospective contacts, reach out
to connect (with a personalized introductory message), or get introduced through
other connections you may have in common.
Connections may be able to help you bypass the standard application
procedure and provide a reference (or at least an introduction) to a hiring
manager. RIT alumni are very willing to assist one another, so take advantage
of your shared alma mater experience to expand your network and further your
job search efforts.
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