| More than 80 percent of recruiters these days | | | | your Virtual Footprint, not in trying to stop the |
| use Google to find information on candidates as | | | | hiring personnel turned online personal investigator. |
| part of their "informal" recruitment process. | | | | Effectively managing your Virtual Footprint means: |
| Unfortunately, 30% of those candidates are not | | | | - Employing the privacy settings on your casual |
| considered because of negative or unflattering | | | | social networking accounts and checking the |
| information found online. (The Twitter Job Search | | | | options regularly to ensure you're always using |
| Guide, 2010). | | | | the best settings for your privacy goals |
| The link between our virtual footprint and the | | | | - Consistently use "professional/work" email |
| hiring process continues to strengthen and | | | | addresses for work and "personal "email |
| become less taboo for recruiters and hiring | | | | addresses for personal use |
| personnel. Instead of viewing online research on | | | | - Regularly search yourself to monitor and protect |
| you as unnecessary snooping that's irrelevant to | | | | your Virtual Footprint |
| your ability to do your job, hiring personnel have | | | | - Ensure hiring personnel find positive information |
| begun to view it as an excellence, free, and fairly | | | | about you by setting up a LinkedIn, FedSpace, |
| reliable resource for ruling out candidates in one of | | | | GovLoop, Twitter, blog or website that relates |
| the most competitive job markets we've seen in | | | | directly to your field and career while |
| years. | | | | demonstrating your personal brand |
| So what can you do about it? Despite the | | | | Our virtual footprint, like our environmental |
| numerous lawsuits regarding terminations, | | | | footprint, is difficult to erase and will last long after |
| disciplinary action, and recruitment decisions based | | | | we've turned to dust. You'll come out ahead if |
| on public online data, the trend for using it for | | | | you take its impact seriously. |
| employer decision-making actually appears to be | | | | Managing your Virtual Footprint by making it an |
| increasing. | | | | essential part of your regular career management |
| You've probably heard the old adage of, "you | | | | regimen will go a long way to keeping you |
| can't control what others do, but you can control | | | | competitive in this unforgiving, information-hungry |
| how you react to it." Therefore, where you can | | | | job market. |
| make the most impact is in effectively managing | | | | |