Interacting with people off and online creates and builds an image of you. If the company with whom you’ve applied for a position does an online search of your name, what will they find? How will you be perceived in their eyes? Is your reputation impacted by misuse of social media accounts or regrettable photographs, blogs, comments or other information?
Check Your Online Reputation
Be aware of the traces you leave behind in the virtual world, related to both your personal and professional lives.
Ways You May Be Unintentionally Present Online:
Participation in a seminar or conference (list of participant names online)
Reports for a sporting or social club or other organization you are associated with
Online local newspaper
Publications or photographs of you posted by others
Ways You May Be Intentionally Present Online
Your profile(s) on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Any blogs you've written
Any comments you've shared on a forum, etc.
In these situations, you’ve contributed to creating your own online reputation (unless you have remained anonymous with a pseudonym profile).
Your digital identity is the reflection of the information you have chosen to share. Have you carefully managed and monitored your privacy settings? If not, your personal information becomes public!
Clean up your information and photographs. Check results on Google images and videos. Check your privacy settings on social networks. You don’t want to leave any traces that could embarrass you or require explaining.
In the next chapter, we'll talk about optimizing your intentional online presence.
