Topic 3: Remain Authentic Building your Online Professional Profile
Topic 3: Remain Authentic
Building your Online Professional Profile
 Fig. 2: My current Profile Picture, which I use on all of my profiles
As our digital world is expanding, the ways in which employers look for new recruits are changing. Having a strong identity should be the starting point. Most of us know that building an online professional profile is becoming really essential. Employers and recruiters use the web and scan through individuals personal profiles in order to help them conduct employment backgrounds and to recruit the people they’re after [1].
According to (Jobvite, Social Recruiting Survey 2014) “73% of recruiters used social media to hire employees whereas 94% of recruiters used LinkedIn as their primary research tool for new employees”[2].
Jobvite’s Social Recruiting Survey in 2014 [2]
In order to secure the perfect job, you must develop your own professional identity in order to differentiate yourself and stand out to an employer among other competitors. An effective professional profile helps to sell yourself better to recruiters via your personal branding online and I’ll elaborate below.
Without this ultimate presence online that gets employers attention, recruiters will not be able to find you and make a critical judgement call on your online identity. For this reason many are encouraged to preserve and maintain a genuine profile which helps enhance and identify their persona, online as much as they are offline.
When finding a job in a competitive market, how can you stand out amongst other competitors?
By creating an authentic online professional profile which is genuine, and more significantly, a profile that represents you. Social platforms also enable constant networking and communication that has gifted us with ability to express ourselves, while remaining authentic.
A few tips to help enhance an authentic online professional profile:
- Using a professional picture of yourself for all your online profiles, as it would be easier for recruiters to find you.
- Audit your profile
Review your profiles objectively and try to have appropriate things about yourself, which will be suitable for professional circles to see.
- Be authentic and genuine
Being fake doesn’t define who you are, it’s important to be honest in displaying who you are online and in your resume. Lying will not get you far in life, recruiters will soon notice you, and hence they are experts in this field.
- Have all your social network profiles linked – this increases employer reachability.
References
[1] Schawbel, D. (2011). 5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will Replace Your Resume in 10 Years. Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/02/21/5-reasons-why-your-online-presence-will-replace-your-resume-in-10-years/ [Accessed: 4th February 2015]
[2] Jobvite (2014). Social media is an essential recruitment tool across industries: Available at: https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf [Accessed: 4th February 2015]
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDNz3496abs
[4]https://yjangie.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/topic3.png
