Talking Talent

Around 77 per cent of recruiters use search engines to find background data on candidates (according to one survey).  Of those, 35 per cent have eliminated a candidate because of what they found online.

So how do you protect your personal brand?

Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang recently examined an online dispute between a photographer and an employee at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently.  While I won’t go into the details of the dispute, the upshot is that the photographer blogged about the incident, called the SF MOMA employee (Simon) an ‘a-hole’ and the story was soon circulating through cyberspace.  It became the number one story on Digg, and spread to Flickr, Zoomr, Friendfeed and Twitter.

A simple Google search will now uncover hundreds of results tied to Simon being an ‘a-hole’.  As Jeremiah Owyang says, Simon had very little online footprint to start with, and “now it will be dominated online by all of these social media elements” and his reputation will be forever linked to this incident.

… we know that many recruiters use the web to find candidates, and seeing several results like this could result in a recruiter passing up a candidate. If a recruiter doesn’t care, or doesn’t see this, hiring managers are likely to do Google searches on the individual finding this.

So, the key takeaways (courtesy of Jeremiah):

• For those that don’t already participate online, and have a small digital footprint, they don’t have a strong platform to stand from. 
• Anyone is susceptible to brand damage, even if you’re not in this space (and even emails can do damage – see the Dianna Abala saga and marvel!).
• Bloggers with large social media platforms are incredibly powerful, and must recognize the long-term impacts of their actions. 
• Businesses should assume every customer (and employee) is capable of impacting an individual or company’s online reputation.
• Simon may have to buy search ads to get his printed resume or story correctly positioned.

So, go Google yourself.  It’s not so much ego surfing as research!

New research reveals that half of all workers “fell into” their careers. 

A survey, commissioned by recruitment firm Chandler Macleod, finds half of all workers did not plan their careers, and instead left their career paths to chance.

Interestingly, the survey found three-in-four workers reported being pigeonholed by employers because of their current jobs or careers. The university-educated (86 per cent) were more likely to feel pigeonholed by their career than those without a tertiary degree (70 per cent).

The top three reasons why respondents chose their current jobs were:

• they felt ‘able’ to do the job
• the job was available at the time of their search
• the job was linked to subjects they were interested in at school.

Involving some 648 workers aged between 18 and 64 years, the study also found that 20 per cent were actively looking for a new job or career and 44 per cent were “keeping an eye out”.

So, not only do we have an escalating skills shortage, but we have millions of people who are unhappy, unsuited to their position and unsure of how to approach their next career move.

In What color is your parachute, the world’s best selling career hunting book, Richard Nelson Bolles says that finding a “life-changing” career involves:

• Wanting to basically put a sense of mission into your life
• Looking for a place where you (like a flower) can grow – even if it means you have to talk organisations in to creating a job for you
• Learning as much about yourself and what you want .

So, here’s my piece of advice: manage your career like you’d manage a project.  Think strategically about your strengths and weaknesses.  Ask yourself: what kind of work do I find both energising and challenging?  Analyse your skills gap and look for education or knowledge to close that gap.  And look for opportunities that complement your skill set, your values and your life ambitions.