- you are up to date you are with your field, and
- you are well connected online, sharing ideas and resources with colleagues in your field
The importance of your online presence
Employers are increasingly verifying potential employee’s qualifications, professionalism and organisational fit through applicants’ screening job applicants online presence.
In 2014, 52% of Australian recruiters used social media to research job candidates. In a CareerBuilder survey* recruiters reported finding “provocative or inappropriate photographs”, as well as information on drinking, drug use, inappropriate comments about previous employers and/or co-workers, poor communication skills and discriminatory comments, all of which led recruiters to not hire an applicant.
Recruiters are also assessing applicants’ professional online presence through web platforms such as LinkedIn. In this sense it is important to make a distinction between your online social life and your online professional life. This means ensuring inappropriate content should be removed, but also promoting how your achievements and interests align with the interests of your potential employer.
It’s not just recruiters screening people online, 30% of employers are utilising social media to examine current employees’ online presence, with 25% of these employers warning or dismissing employees as a result of their online content.
Industries where the online screening of job applicants is most likely
- IT – 76%
- Sales – 65%
- Health care – 59%
- Retail – 59%
- Manufacturing – 56%
- Professional and business services – 55%*
Like to know more about managing your online presence?
The library is running two workshops next week on ways to manage your online presence.
- Learn to Connect: Developing you Personal Learning network (PLN),Tuesday, 2 August 2016 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (AEST)
This workshop shows you how to create and maintain an online presence to help you keep up to date with your particular field of study. It demonstrates the applications Twitter, Feedly and Linked In, that allow you to make yourself known to others in your field as well allowing you to communicate with them. The workshop also has some suggestions about clearing up your current online presence to display a more professional image.
- Learn to Connect: Managing your Online Information, Thursday, 4 August 2016 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (AEST)
This
workshop demonstrates the Evernote and OneNote applications and how to
use them for study and collaboration. It also has some tips for
migrating browser preferences for when you have to go from one computer
to the next (i.e. from home to work). And we also explore the legal
issue of Copyright in regards to how you can re-use material found
online without getting into trouble!
*Based on a USA survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder between February 10 and March 17, 2016, of 2,186 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,031 full time, US workers in the private sector across industries and company sizes.