Amar Thakur
how r u,
On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:30 IST anjali solanke wrote:
>Five Mistakes Online Job Hunters Make
>
>In a tight job market, building and maintaining an online presence is
>critical to networking and job hunting. Done right, it can be an important
>tool for present and future networking and useful for potential employers
>trying to get a sense of who you are, your talents and your experience. Done
>wrong, it can easily take you out of the running for most positions.
>
>Here are five mistakes online job hunters make:
>
>*1. Forgetting manners.*
>
>If you use Twitter or you write a blog, you should assume that hiring
>managers and recruiters will read your updates and your posts. A December
>2009 study by Microsoft<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=MSFT>
>Corp.
>found that 79% of hiring managers and job recruiters review online
>information about job applicants before making a hiring decision. Of those,
>70% said that they have rejected candidates based on information that they
>found online. Top reasons listed? Concerns about lifestyle, inappropriate
>comments, and unsuitable photos and videos.
>
>"Everything is indexed and able to be searched," says Miriam Salpeter, an
>Atlanta-based job search and social media coach. "Even Facebook, which many
>people consider a more private network, can easily become a trap for job
>seekers who post things they would not want a prospective boss to see."
>
>Don't be lulled into thinking your privacy settings are foolproof. "All it
>takes is one person sharing information you might not want shared,
>forwarding a post, or otherwise breaching a trust for the illusion of
>privacy in a closed network to be eliminated," says Ms. Salpeter, who
>recommends not posting anything illegal (even if it's a joke), criticism of
>a boss, coworker or client, information about an interviewer, or anything
>sexual or discriminatory. "Assume your future boss is reading everything you
>share online," she says.
>
>*2. Overkill.*
>
>Blanketing social media networks with half-done profiles accomplishes
>nothing except to annoy the exact people you want to impress: prospective
>employees trying to find out more about on you.
>
>One online profile done well is far more effective than several unpolished
>and incomplete ones, says Sree Sreenivasan, dean of students at Columbia
>University Graduate School of Journalism. He made the decision early on to
>limit himself to three social-networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn and
>Twitter. "There is just not enough time," he says. "Pick two or three, then
>cultivate a presence there."
>
>Many people make the mistake of joining LinkedIn and other social media
>sites and then just letting their profiles sit publicly unfinished, says
>Krista Canfield, a LinkedIn spokesperson. "Just signing up for an account
>simply isn't enough," she says. "At a bare minimum, make sure you're
>connected to at least 35 people and make sure your profile is 100 percent
>complete. Members with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive
>opportunities through LinkedIn."
>
>LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the three most popular social networking
>sites for human resources managers to use for recruiting, according to a
>survey released last month by JobVite, a maker of recruiting software.
>
>*3. Not getting the word out.*
>
>When accounting firm Dixon Hughes recently had an opening for a business
>development executive, Emily Bennington, the company's director of marketing
>and development, posted a link to the opportunity on her Facebook page. "I
>immediately got private emails from a host of people in my network, none of
>whom I knew were in the market for a new job," she says. " I understand that
>there are privacy concerns when it comes to job hunting, but if no one knows
>you're looking, that's a problem, too."
>
>Changing this can be as simple as updating your status on LinkedIn and other
>social networking sites to let people know that you are open to new
>positions. If you're currently employed and don't want your boss to find out
>that you're looking, you'll need to be more subtle. One way to do this is to
>give prospective employers a sense of how you might fit in, says Dan
>Schawbel, author of "Me 2.0" and founder of Millennial Branding. "I
>recommend a positioning, or personal brand statement, that depicts who you
>are, what you do, and what audience you serve, so that people get a feeling
>for how you can benefit their company."
>
>*4. Quantity over quality.*
>
>Choose connections wisely; only add people you actually know or with whom
>you've done business. Whether it's on LinkedIn, Facebook or any other
>networking site, "it's much more of a quality game than a quantity game,"
>says Ms. Canfield. A recruiter may choose to contact one of your connections
>to ask about you; make sure that person is someone you know and trust.
>
>And there's really no excuse for sending an automated, generic introduction,
>says Ms. Canfield. "Taking the extra five to 10 seconds to write a line or
>two about how you know the other person and why'd you'd like to connect to
>them can make the difference between them accepting or declining your
>connection request," she says. "It also doesn't hurt to mention that you're
>more than willing to help them or introduce them to other people in your
>network."
>
>*5. Online exclusivity.*
>
>Early last year, Washington's Tacoma Public Utilities posted a water meter
>reader position on its website. The response? More than 1,600 people applied
>for the $17.76 an hour position.
>
>With the larger number of people currently unemployed (and under-employed),
>many employers are being inundated with huge numbers of applications for any
>positions they post. In order to limit the applicant pool, some have stopped
>posting positions on their websites and job boards, says Tim Schoonover,
>chairman of career consulting firm OI Partners.
>
>Scouring the Web for a position and doing nothing else is rarely the best
>way to go. "When job-seekers choose to search for jobs exclusively online–
>rather than also include in-person networking–they may be missing out on
>'hidden' opportunities," says Mr. Schoonover. "Higher-level jobs are not
>posted as often as lower-level jobs online. In-person networking may be
>needed to uncover these higher-level positions, which may be filled by
>executive recruiters."
>
>*Write to *ELIZABETH GARONE at cjed...@dowjones.com
>
>--
>Thanks & Regards,
>Anjali Solanke
>GMR DIAL