How can we create an authentic online professional profile? Can something so subjective ever be truly ‘authentic’? With the number of graduates now at its highest, competition for the best careers is fierce. Consequently, we students and professionals must be proactive in showing potential employers our skills and desire in order to stand out from the crowd.
But what exactly constitutes a professional profile? It all sounds very grand and formal but it often isn’t. Although you can set up an official and separate portfolio (see below), the majority of prospective employers will simply search social media.
Even Dummies can do it: For Dummies is one of many websites offering free advice to professionals about how to impress employers. Image: screenshot of For Dummies: How to Create Effective and Professional Online Profiles.
Jobvite figures estimate that 93% of graduate employers use or will use social media in the coming years, with 73% increasing their usage in 2014. Facebook was used by 35% of employers to vet candidates pre- and post-interview in 2014. Everything we post online can be used to judge us in a personal, professional and even legal sense. This clearly emphasises the need for absolute privacy on all social media accounts – you don’t want an employer to see something trivial but ‘unprofessional’ when they are assessing your suitability for a job. Does this selective editing of what employers see – such as ‘pinning’ tweets – make for an ‘authentic’ profile? Can something which is not comprehensive be fully authentic?
There is, however, one important distinction to make here: this is mainly for graduate jobs. Although many employers for non-graduate jobs will want to ascertain a potential employee’s character, they will not focus on their desire and aptitude for all things web related, or any particular expertise or professional manner. Most employers looking to fill ‘ordinary’ jobs are interested solely in hard work and relevant experience. When I worked at the Post Office before university, for example, I was asked about work ethic rather than anything else. There is another (fairly) famous example of an employer focusing solely on simply doing the job in his advert. See the advert and article about it here:
This advert raises some very important questions. Does what we post online affect our suitability for work, or portray the employer in a bad light? Should employers be interested in what we do in our own time?
Barclays have realised that they are interested and have released adverts to help:
The question is: patronising or useful?
Bibliography:
Barclays, TV ad on Life Skills <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91JmMr7Gs_k> [accessed 02 November 2015].
For Dummies: How to Create Effective and Professional Online Profiles <http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-effective-and-professional-online-pr.html> [accessed 02 November 2015].
Jobvite, Social Recruiting Survey (2014) <https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf> [accessed 02 November 2015].
Victoria Ward, ‘”There’s no money”: Restaurateur posts searingly honest job advert’, The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2015 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11620499/Theres-no-money-Restaurateur-posts-searingly-honest-job-advert.html> [accessed 02 November 2015].
mjpeacock 
Hey Michael,
I really enjoyed reading your post, you asked some great questions.
I don’t think employers should be interested in what we do in our own time, but it benefits them greatly if they take the time to look. The online professional profile is like the new and improved C.V. and what looks great on paper isn’t always great in person.
As someone who in previous ‘ordinary’ job roles has had an input in the hiring and firing I can honestly say that on more than one occasion I’ve regretted not finding out a little more about the people being employed. This article is an example of why employers should find out as much as they can http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/73628466/Three-types-of-employees-you-should-avoid
Do you think employers should be interested in what we do? If you were an employer would you not take the time to look, especially if it helps you in the long run?
What do you believe it takes to be truly authentic? Is it an online identity where all profiles are equally accessible to all? Is it one online identity, not multiple?
I don’t believe it matters how many identities you have or whether or not you’ve chosen to be selective in what you show. I think as long as you are posting as yourself and what you say is a true representation of what you actually think you are being authentic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Leah,
Thanks! I do agree that social media etc. can help to identify potentially problematic employees, but I’m not sure that the extremes to which many graduate recruiters take this is strictly necessary. If someone openly follows politics, a religion or any other interest/hobby, for example, and uses social media to do so, they should not be penalised. Illegal and/or inappropriate views/behaviours for the specific job, however, should definitely not be tolerated.
I think that authenticity goes hand-in-hand with comprehensiveness. Professional profiles require a very selective approach to portraying yourself and, although you may not be lying, you are not telling the whole truth. As long as you do not omit anything which could be deemed necessary to a job application – relevant criminal convictions etc. – then there should be no problem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Michael I really enjoyed the blog. The main thing that stood out for me in your blog was the point you made about whether selective editing for employers makes for an ‘authentic’ profile.
Another good point that you made was about using your online profile to stand out from the crowd. There are so many examples of how to write a good CV now that it is very hard for employers to tell whether a candidate is good or not just from their CV.
Another point you made was about how this is mainly for graduate jobs. Even the things that we write now could affect our chances at getting a graduate job. They may not have an immediate impact on us yet but the problem with the internet is that once it’s out there it’s out there for good so when it does come to finding a job after university the things that we have said now may come back to bite us.
http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/how-recruiters-use-social-networks-to-make-hiring-decisions-now/
LikeLike