Kill The Alias & Land A Job!

This was my absolute favorite resource so far simply because of its relevancy to my life at this time. It made me realize that if I wish to grow as a professional (as much as I would like to use my social networks to blab about personal information to my “friends” and “followers”) I also have to grow socially in my online profiles.

Before reading this article, it never dawned on me that the presence of a professional profile was just as, if not much more, important than hiding a “not so professional” profile. I’ve been so busy trying to live a double life online (building my Facebook and Twitter profiles under an alias) that I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture of how important using sites like Facebook and Twitter were to me possibly landing a job and professional connections. I was so scared of the horror stories I've heard about people losing their jobs or not being hired because employers were finding inappropriate material on their Facebook page, that I figured I'd just change my name and use the alias for my "casual" profile and create a professional one later (but of course I never got around to the professional one). Then, I figured maybe I'll filter the content on my page and keep it casual, but never once did I think to actually use Facebook or Twitter to LAND a job.

Sure, if I ever got a job, my employer would never find me on Facebook or Twitter, but what about when I want to be found. Especially, after reading this article and seeing that these websites can be used to my advantage in this time where landing an interview is few and far between.

This article has made me realizes all the places I’ve went wrong while using social networks. It's made me see all the things I need to make visible instead of hiding (since I REALLY have nothing to hide). It's made me see all the optimization tools I’ve been oblivious to, such as the Twitter search engine that allows for automatic updates on “hashtag” words of your choice and the productive reasoning behind using profile “lists”. Also, another HUGE thing I’ve been guilty of is being selfish in my social networks. I always post things about me and what I’m interested in and the article highlights how important it is to promote and encourage other people and ideas by doing something as simple as a “retweet”.

After reading this article I’ve added a sixth “thing [I] want to learn from this course” (it sort of sums up everything I want to learn in one statement) and that’s how to land a job by efficiently using social networks. I am determined to find at least an internship by the end of this course.

And with that being said, I am now off to begin optimizing and “professionalizing” (yes, professionalizing) my online profiles!

Resource pg #121

Resource link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2010/11/4/how-to-use-twitter-to-land-a-job.html

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