Topic 3 | You're Inside My Head

Some really interesting posts this week with Anna’s post being the most creative and Jess’s post being the most user friendly. A lot of blogs mentioned the usual culprits of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn and the importance of having an updated and connected profiles so that we are easier to find.

Andy mentioned that it’s very difficult to get your profile noticed on google if you have a common name. I googled myself following Anna’s question and found that I’m not even on the first page! There were loads of people with exactly the same name as me and here I was thinkinh that my name was exotic and uncommon. In all seriousness employers would probably fail to find me if they didn’t have a picture of me. Perhaps my insistence of privacy over popularity may have financial drawbacks for me in the future.

I focused on my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and how to engage businesses online to get noticed. I’m currently building my LinkedIn by getting connections and building my network and I learned a valuable lesson this week. Right now I’m in the process of applying for jobs in the banking sector and I thought that my LinkedIn would show that I had connections and experience. But LinkedIn has been completely irrelevant to the job applications so far, I am put through the usual gamut of filling online applications, taking psychometric tests and brown nosing the companies. This just confirms to me that digital profiles are so far only relevant to the creative industries, industries requiring academic rigour simply are not bothered about how visible you are online. The old fashioned approach may have some utility but it lacks foresight, no wonder we see little change in the banking sector if the recruitment system itself is rigid.

I may have learned something about my online professional identity this week but I don’t know what the point of online professional identity is after my recent experience.

Most of us are at that stage where we are actively job hunting for next year. The economic outlook may be improving but competition is fierce and I’m busy trying to make myself stand out. And to stand out these days it’s an absolute necessity to have a heavy online presence. Websites like about.me and LinkedIn are redefining job hunting in the digital age, LinkedIn is the market leader with 332 million users; Nik Nyman pointed out in his blog that “94% of all recruiters use LinkedIn to search for candidates”.

The first thing I was told on my first day at my internship was that I had to network relentlessly and LinkedIn was the tool to use to advertise myself. You set up your profile and list your skills and experience and your colleagues and network endorse your skills, so potential employers know your skills/experience and have references to back it up. It’s an effective setup that is becoming increasingly popular amongst most employers. In the end I managed to get endorsements from 8 or so senior investment professionals and when I apply to corporate finance roles later in the year, employers can see my LinkedIn profile and see that I’m good enough to be endorsed by respected professionals.

Another way to increase your professional presence is to follow employers on Twitter and Facebook and engage with them regularly. In the past when people would go to an interview you would have to demonstrate why you wanted to join but online engagement has made this much easier and increased our visibility to employers. Searle (2006) points out that engagement can create “positive reactions to the firm” and “shape new employees psycholocial contracts” with the firm.

It isn’t just about creating LinkedIn profiles, prospective employees must engage with brands and market themselves like products to stand out, we must understand that we are a commodity in the labour market (a bit soul destroying, but essentially the reality) and differentiate ourselves.