Are you worried about your online image? If so help is at hand with the revelation that a new breed of Companies have sprung up that will clean up your online image before you apply for that all important new job.
Are you worried about your online image? If so help is at hand with the revelation that a new breed of Companies have sprung up that will clean up your online image before you apply for that new job.
Research shows that employers are increasingly using the Internet to research job applicants, with a US research study revealing that 63 percent of those who checked social networking sites declining to hire an applicant on the basis of what they uncovered. This has given rise to a new breed of companies offering to sanitise web profiles.
Job hunters perfecting their resumes for that dreamjob are being urged to also polish their online profile — and clean itup if needs be.
Recruitment experts advise job hunters to Googlethemselves before stepping out into the competitive job market to seeif a search pull ups that blog entry written about legalising marijuanaor drunken party photos with friends.
“The internet brings a newdimension to the application process. Sometimes it can work to youradvantage, and sometimes to your disadvantage,” employment Web siteCareerbuilder.com spokeswoman Jennifer Sullivan told Reuters.
Varioussurveys have shown that employers are using online searches to checkout potential candidates — especially as some of the early Internetsurfers become bosses themselves.
A study of 1,150 hiringmanagers by Careerbuilder.com found 26 percent of managers admitted tousing search engines such as Google and 12 percent of managers saidthey used social networking sites like Facebook.com in their hiringprocess.
Those numbers may be low, but not the repercussions.
Ofthe 12 percent who checked social networking sites, 63 percent declinedto hire an applicant based on what they found, citing lying aboutqualifications and criminal behaviour as two of the top disqualifiers.
Butwith hiring managers and job seekers using new and different ways tostay one step ahead of each other, new technology has emerged to helpboth sides of the game.
For US$10 a month, ReputationDefender.comwill search your name everywhere — even “beyond Google” — includingpassword-protected sites, and give a report of their findings.
Forabout US$30 a month, clients can have them do a clean-up, which involvesensuring all links to, for example, a college kegstand on Facebook.comor a disparaging blog entry from a former partner, will not appearduring an online search.
“More than half of my clients use usjust to search and don’t even ask us to clean anything up,” thecompany’s Chief Executive and Founder Michael Fertik, 28, told Reuters.
Fertik, a graduate from Harvard Law School, said it’s important for everyone to know how they’re perceived online.
“Often pictures that are intrinsically innocuous get taken out of context, and then can become punitive,” said Fertik.
PROS AND CONS TO ONLINE PROFILES
While ReputationDefender.com caters to individuals not employers, DefendMyName.com services both camps.
Thetwo-year-old Portland, Maine-based company, a division of QED MediaGroup LLC, will conduct an online clean-up for any size client, fromindividuals to large corporations. Some clients are companies seekingpositive brand image online.
Using proprietary technology,company founder Rob Russo said DefendMyName creates links topromotional sites and blogs on clients in order to bury negative searchengine results.
“Online searching has taken on an essential rolein the corporate world when people are scouting new employees. It isbecoming an actual part of the hiring process along with a criminalbackground check,” Russo told Reuters.
But it is not always to job seekers’ disadvantage that potential employers can check them out online.
TheCareerbuilder.com study found 64 percent of hiring mangers had theirhiring decision confirmed by information found online and 40 percent ofmanagers said their decision was solidified by seeing that a candidatewas “well rounded” and showed a wide range of interests.”
BethMurphy, an advertising assistant in New York, whose boss admitted tosearching her profile on Facebook.com, said being scoped out onlinehelped her land the job.
“In seeing my Facebook profile, theythought I seemed like a well-rounded person. They saw pictures of medoing service work in Africa immediately followed by pictures of mehanging out at a football tailgate,” she told Reuters.