There is a lot of talk currently about Head Hunting, Social Recruiting, LinkedIn recruitment. So what does that mean to you, the job seeker?
Obviously, it means is that there are now a lot of different ways that you can BeFound by potential employers and recruiters. Sounds great doesn’t it? But you need to be able to make the technology and tools work for you.
There are a few simple rules you should follow:
Read the fine print – BeFound not harassed
There are a number of website out there that allow you to create or upload a professional profile to assist in promoting yourself to potential employers. Make sure that you understand how your information is going to be used, displayed, on-sold.
Try to maintain as much control over your information as you can. Throwing yourself out there indiscriminately is not necessarily a good idea.
Ask yourself:
- Do I want my information and contact details presented to any employer or recruiter that requests/pays for it?
- Do I want cold calls from random recruitment agencies?
I have actually heard of several instances where a recruiter has found a LinkedIn profile that ‘sort of’ matched some requirements they had. They did not have the contact info for the individual concerned, so they called the company they were working for. Nice move! The recruiter called the head office, found their way to the switch board and eventually was put through to the LinkedIn member in question. Innovative or Invasive? You decide!
Optimise yourself
Make sure you optimize your profiles. If you create an on-line profile for the purposes of being Head Hunted, make sure that the profile works for you and that it will actually help you to BeFound.
The rules today are the same as they have always been. Recruiters have always used keywords to identify appropriate resumes held on their internal databases. I have always advised job seekers to make their Resume idiot proof and keyword rich – the same applies to on-line profiles.
Find out which fields are searchable and use these to your advantage. If you are looking for a specific role make sure you mention it where you can (sensibly!).
Make sure that you have a solid on-line profile
This includes twitter pages, Facebook, MySpace, blogs etc.
I don’t care what anyone says, but most potential employers and recruiters will Google candidates. If they find a Facebook profile photo of you that they deem inappropriate or find a blog that you author which does not match their views/values that may be the end of the road for you.
I’m not suggesting that you sterilize all of your on-line activities, but make sure that you have adequate security settings (especially on Facebook) to stop people seeing things that you do not want them to see.
At the end of the day if you want to BeFound you need to put yourself out there. Where you do so and how you do it is up to you, but make sure that whatever you do on-line helps you to
BeFound and stay found!
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