Job Hunting In the Digital Age - Reputation, Resumes & Video Interviews
Teachers and parents should play an important role in encouraging students to take their online reputations seriously.
Some employers actually track down the social media footprints of applicants, so if students are behaving inappropriately online, they could jeopardise their job prospects.
In order to help students make smarter choices online, teachers and parents should read up on reputation, resumes and video interviews in the digital age - and then they should make sure that the students within their spheres of influence understand what’s at stake.
Online Reputation Matters
Three-quarters of recruiters are more than willing to go online to research job candidates, and seven in 10 have rejected candidates based on what they discovered online. So it’s important that students who are working towards their degrees know that their online reputations count for a lot.
Reputation-Building Tips
LinkedIn, an online social media site for professionals, is a must for students looking to build a solid online reputation. They can showcase their resume and look for work opportunities -- particularly since 89% of recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn.
Profiles 101
Personal profiles should be kept personal. In other words, they should be made available only to select people, they should not contain inappropriate content and they should not have usernames that are the same as the account holders’ real names. For professional profiles, students should include professional photos, use their real names as their username and stick to posting only industry-specific content.
Video Resume
In the digital age, it pays to have a video resume. Students should be encouraged to take advantage of video resumes to differentiate themselves from the majority of people who still do resumes the 'old fashioned way'.
Video Interviews
Many students are already familiar with Skype and similar video-chat applications, so it won’t be hard to get them to grasp the concept of participating in video interviews. Be sure to give them some pointers, though, on making the right impressions - from making eye contact to having good posture to dressing appropriately.
A lot is at stake for students in this digital age. But if they use technology responsibly, they’ll do just fine in leveraging the power of the Internet to get ahead in a competitive job market.
For more information on Job Hunting in the Digital Age, check out this infographic:
