Online branding affects students’ career outlook

Story and illustration • Sarah Grothjan

Landing an interview once meant pressing a fresh suit and tie or fidgeting over the right ensemble of skirts, blouses, blazers and stockings to woo the pants off a future boss. It meant printing an extra resume, setting three alarm clocks, working out possible answers to interview questions, eating a hefty breakfast and repeatedly checking the time. It also meant cleaning up mentally, remembering what stories not to divulge when asked about conflict resolution strategies and knowing what past job experiences to simply gloss over.

In recent years, with the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, interview preparation may also mean a few extra minutes spent cleaning up the cyber reputation and even partaking in damage control. The clear distinction between personal information and resume-worthy snooping material has become convoluted in regard to the online world. Future college graduates and job seekers take heed – the type of image maintained online may affect job opportunities offline.

According to career expert and author of Success for Hire and MillennialTweet, Alexandra Levit states that getting too cozy and becoming lackadaisical with the type of image portrayed online through Facebook, Twitter and even Google results can compromise career opportunities.

Levit claims that in a 2010 study by Microsoft, 79 percent of U.S. hiring managers and job recruiters reviewed online information about job applicants, and 70 percent of them rejected candidates based on the findings.

To establish a credible online rapport, Levit suggests developing an e-brand that conveys “a trustworthy, reliable, hardworking and enthusiastic potential employee.” General tools to utilize when undertaking this process are blogs, paid domains and business-specific networking sites such as LinkedIn.

Levit suggests buying your name as a domain and scattering key words throughout the site that a hiring manager may use while searching a future employee on the Internet. Putting time into making sure Google results reflect the best possible image of “a trustworthy, reliable, hardworking and enthusiastic potential employee” may place a person at the top of the game…literally.

Online marketing manager Lorna Li believes “the new hiring paradigm will favor individuals who can network their way into companies via social networking and social media sites, or who will attract employers to them through their personal branding and online presence.”

Because of the nature of Li’s work in the online marketing industry, potential employees are thoroughly screened, and social networking sites are taken into account. Li believes that such methods are becoming popularized as a commonplace procedure for hiring.

“Because of the recession, and increased job competition, those who brand themselves online and are capable of dominating Google page one results for their name, plus industry specific keywords, will be at a significant advantage over those who do not,” Li said.

The prominence that social networking has in influencing careers is certainly confirmed. The discrepancy lies in how much personal expression is acceptable on the once “personal” websites.

“Anything that is posted to the web is now in the public domain, no matter what privacy settings are indicated on the service being used, because these settings are vulnerable to a certain extent,” Li said.

Simply put, most hiring managers agree that information posted online should be information an individual would like to see representing his or her name for years to come.

Job-solidifying traits of social networking sites can be found through mutual friends or mutual connections, Li said. She considers whether the potential employee has made a clear presence in the industry by searching for mutual connections within that industry.

Li said the most job-busting information found on social networking sites are posts that are “compromising, inflammatory, racist, etc. That is because, in doing so, they demonstrate a failure to understand (how to manage their online presence).”

Likewise, Media and Outreach Manager at YES! Magazine Susan Gleason seeks potential employees that represent themselves appropriately online through both actions and attitude.

“I know there is a good level of humor in a snarky attitude, but if overall I’m getting the impression that this person is invested in having a negative outlook on things, it just wouldn’t be a good fit for me,” Gleason said.

Gleason also takes into account the personal interests of potential employees through the information divulged on Facebook. “I look at the profile and anything they’ve posted there about school and interests. Often the “interests” part is more fleshed out than what somebody would put in his or her resume. Seeing what issues they care about is important especially because Yes! is very issue-oriented,” Gleason said.

Warnings in place, incriminating photos and inappropriate messages remain an easy find throughout social networking sites. The power remains in the hands of the individual to decide how to filter the content of his or her online presence. Georgetown University second year grad students and Scripps alumna Clair Navaro said she does keep in mind the image she portrays online.

“I’ve been told by companies that the initial page of my Facebook profile was viewed prior to hiring. My picture is always free of alcohol, party scenes, and/or other potentially compromising situations. I have set (and checked) the privacy levels to ensure only certain information is available for public viewing,” Navaro said.

Navaro said she made the decision to give her Facebook page a more career-worthy appearance after departing from undergraduate studies.

“I was interviewing with companies, and I became very aware of how transparent social media really is,” she added.

Managing editor of Beverage Industry Magazine and Scripps alumna Jennifer Zegler said she has experienced both sides of the social networking sphere.

After attaining a master’s degree, Zegler decided it was time to clean up her online reputation before continuing down her career path. Likewise, when leaving a job position in 2008, Zegler aided in the hiring process by searching the social networking sites of the applicants she interviewed

“I searched the Facebook profiles of the applicants I had interviewed. Two of the three did not have privacy settings on their profiles, and I was able to learn a lot more about their personal lives than what came across in the interview,” Zegler said.

While the line between personal and professional continues to be unclear, cleaning up a social networking site may better ensure chances of hiring. Remaining conscientious of an online repertoire of photos and Tweets is increasingly becoming just as important as printing an experience-packed resume.

Resource Bio: Lorna Li is an online marketing manager at a large Bay Area technology company. She specializes in SEO, SEM and social media marketing and loves to help people understand how to use social media to develop their personal online brand. She is also passionate about green marketing. For more information about Lorna, check out her blog Green Marketing 2.0