What comes up when you Google your own name? Is it a sparkling LinkedIn profile or photos you’d rather not come to the attention of a prospective employer? If you don’t know, you risk not making the best digital first impression.
As we’ve previously looked into before, first impressions (including your digital first impression) do carry a huge amount of weight.
It is said that face to face, an initial judgement can be made in as little as one 10th of second. Things such as your appearance and your time-keeping can be vital in forming this first impression of you, which is of course often important in a professional context.
In the same way this face-to-face meeting can be determined by whether you ironed your shirt and how those first few conversations go, your digital first impression is determined by how you come across during those key cursory glances at your online presence.
Make no mistake, in this increasingly digital world, it is almost inevitable that an employer will stick your name into Google to see what comes up. Do you have any idea what they’ll find?
Will your would-be boss stumble across a well-manicured LinkedIn profile, or merely the underdeveloped shell of one that you haven’t updated since stepping out of a career development meeting in college?
Keeping your LinkedIn shipshape is pretty important in this day and age, as it essentially serves as your online CV. It’s a good idea to do things like get a professional (or at least professional-looking) headshot taken, customise your URL, create an attention-grabbing headline and succinctly summarise why you’re a great candidate for a role while still steering clear of tedious clichés.
If you have a publicly accessible Twitter account, would you be happy for your manager to see what’s on your timeline? If not, you may want to either put your account on private or make a conscious decision to filter what you say publicly. As a pre-job-hunt exercise, try Googling your own name and seeing what comes up. You can also set a Google alert for your name so you’ll be made aware of any updates as soon as they happen.
For some more advice on mastering your digital first impression, check out this infographic below compiled by On Stride.
Infographic: On Stride
