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'Netrep' - managing your profile online
Here at
mygraduatecareer.com, we spend lots of time thinking about ways to help
graduates present themselves to employers in the best possible way.
Highlighting your talents, looking the part and having the right qualifications are all important parts of the interview process.
However, there has been a lot of interest from employers in
information that can be
found on candidates via social media. This page is full of key tips on
how to positively manage your 'netrep' or online profile and find out what information about YOU is available online.
The big F - Facebook. This
is
the most worrying factor for most university graduates as the photos
and posts are usually to do with drinking and the resultant, quite
possibly inappropriate,behaviour. Here's a list of things to check for
on your profile to ensure that
you're not stalked out of any job you apply for.
Be
aware! When
you leave university or school, have a quick flick through your friend
list and delete any of those people who are involved in some form of PR
or have set up profiles posing as students on behalf of some company or
other. It is always useful to keep a tab on who you're friends with, as
these are the people who can access your information,
plus it's always fun to go on a FB cull! The most classic fails involve
previous Facebook rapes, where your mates have joined you up to
inappropriate groups or pages which don't give the best impression to
prospective employers.
Photos
are harder to manage as they can be connected to many different
networks through tagging. The simplest option is to de-tag yourself from
anything that
may be considered offensive, illegal or in any kind of moral grey area.
If you wouldn't want to show it to your mum and dad, you might want to
de-tag it!
Fanpages! Same concept as before,
don’t associate yourself with anything too abusive or most importantly,
illegal. This is the time to stop being a fan of ‘Weed’. Remember to join the mygraduatecareer.com fanpage on Facebook.
Twitter/Blogs and Myspace These
settings are along the same lines as Facebook - only join groups that
are not considered offensive. Employers won’t mind if you’re into a wide
variety of music or run a
blog on what you do from day to day, however they're highly unlikely to
consider you to be a suitable candidate if you include a running account
of your sex life or join music groups associated with sadomasochism or
drugs.
Oversharing
Remember that the new
world of social media have loosened a lot of the preconceptions about
what people believe is ‘private information’.
A lot of recruiters and possible employers are of the older generation
who were not exposed to the same open-information society. Being
restrained with how much you
share and who you share it with is an important part of growing as a
person. It's always nice to maintain a bit of mystery and not overexpose
yourself, it could back-fire and end up embarrassing you or the company
you work for.
Follow us on Twitter @MyCareersAdvice, join our Facebook Fan Page, link to us and spread the word about mygraduatecareer.com!
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