I'm Going To Google You
And when I do, what am I going to find? It's not any big secret any longer that companies are Googling prospective hires in an effort to learn more about them when they apply for jobs. But have you ever bothered to Google your own name and see what comes up? How about under the image results? No one's going to find that MySpace photo of you with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth, looking like you desperately need Visine, right?
Incriminating photos aside, there's another opportunity here: not just to eliminate the bad stuff, but to build a whole lot of good stuff, too. You can write interesting stuff, dazzle people with the photos on your Flickr account, and create a Meetup local group where you get together with local cycling enthusiasts and hit the open roads.
You lead an interesting life, right? (Outside of the "eyedrop-worthy" parts of it, anyway.) Now, before you're looking for your next job, is the perfect time to prove it online, by filling out the long tail of your reputation in the search engines with some juicy tidbits about who you really are. Figure out the story you want to tell, and then tell it with all your might.
Incriminating photos aside, there's another opportunity here: not just to eliminate the bad stuff, but to build a whole lot of good stuff, too. You can write interesting stuff, dazzle people with the photos on your Flickr account, and create a Meetup local group where you get together with local cycling enthusiasts and hit the open roads.
You lead an interesting life, right? (Outside of the "eyedrop-worthy" parts of it, anyway.) Now, before you're looking for your next job, is the perfect time to prove it online, by filling out the long tail of your reputation in the search engines with some juicy tidbits about who you really are. Figure out the story you want to tell, and then tell it with all your might.