Refurbish online persona to get the job

Felicity Coughlan, the director of the Independent Institute of Education, said: “Until recently, job hunters have been advised to ensure there is no compromising content on their social media profiles which could potentially harm their prospects,” Joburg East Express reported.

“But these days, it is not just likely that your online presence will be scrutinised. You can now safely take it as a certainty and should know that your social profile will substantially shape the impression you create in a recruiter’s mind. Therefore, the social media audit is no longer just something to tick off your job-hunt to-do list. It is, in fact, the very first step to take before you even start your search.”

Coughlan said it was difficult to cover all your bases when cleaning up your online presence because many people used several different platforms and sometimes even forgot about accounts they had had years ago.

“Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences of that speech. Things you have long since forgotten about could damage your chances of landing an interview. And it is also not just what you said or shared that could influence the employer.

“If your entire timeline is filled with selfie after selfie and nothing much besides, it doesn’t indicate the well-roundedness that most employers are looking for.

“The best bet is to start with a clean slate and create a professional online persona from scratch while ensuring prospective employers are guided to that persona and not your personal social presence,” she said.

Coughlan added it was not advisable to completely wipe your presence, although there are sites that allow one to do that.

“Killing off your online presence completely will raise more questions than it will solve problems. If someone researching your name online finds nothing, it will definitely raise a red flag about your candidacy.”

Coughlan said a job hunter’s best bet was to set stringent privacy controls over personal content while building up a strong professional profile elsewhere and directing prospective employers there.

A handy tool for doing so is creating a profile on a whole new platform.

“Creating and tailoring a new, professional online identity will greatly improve a graduate’s chances in SA’s notoriously tough job market,” said Coughlan.

– Caxton News Service