Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Impact of #SoMe and Your Paper and Personal Presence

Today I learned an important lesson on Social Media presence and how it relates to your resume. You need to make sure that your presence online, on paper and in person are on point. Make sure that your LinkedIn is up to date, since it is your online resume. Also, make sure that your other online accounts such as Facebook and Twitter are good too. These are the things that the selection committee will be looking for.

As a person who is part of the "millennial" or "Generation Y" group, I have to especially make sure that what I say on paper and online is really what it is. Like my friend said, #SoMe is a "truth checker." Plus it shows who you really are. Yes, your resume may be one or one and a half pages long and your cover letter is really good, but once someone hits the magnifying glass on the Google Search, it better not be downhill from there.

It is important to constantly Google yourself. Usually your first and last name and what state or country you live in. I have provided an example below:

As you can see in the above picture, I typed in my first and last name and my home state, New York. Now one of the first things that you notice is a LinkedIn page. Make sure that you have one because it makes your online presence more positive and appealing to the selection committee. It will be the first one or two things to appear on your name's Google Search.

The second thing you notice is my Twitter handle, @ElennaMGeffrard. If you do have a Twitter handle and it happens to be your name, make sure that it's a presentable one. My Twitter handle has important things that I want employers to look for: the school that I came from, what I intend on studying, etc. Also it is free from inappropriate things. So this is why I said that your Twitter needs to be "presentable."

The third thing is something from the White Pages or something from your state's employment. About your wages, etc. But that's not what we're going to focus on today.

My name, luckily, is unique. But for someone, let's call her Maria Sanchez, may have at least 5 people that share her name in her location and maybe at least 50 in the country. So Maria has to work hard to make her presence known. She could add a middle name or middle initial to stand out a bit more with her achievements.

But there are other positives in your #SoMe profiles. Employers might be looking for your interests to figure out what kind of person you are and if you fit in their work space. Just once again make sure that your interests are clean. You don't want a random Vine playing or your cover photo of your Facebook Timeline to be of you and your friends drinking kegs of beer.

To close, #SoMe is an extension of you. You are representing your state, your school, or where ever you work. Be sure to fix the loose ends with a fine toothed comb.

Take care everyone! Thank you for reading!


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