Harnessing your online persona

Applying for jobs used to be so simple. Armed with a cover letter and a résumé, you could go anywhere really. Those two pages included everything an employer needed to know about you, and if there was information you wanted to keep secret, you just didn’t include it on the networking papers.

Unfortunately, the job application process isn’t so straightforward anymore. A résumé and cover letter just don’t cut it. This is especially true for those looking for work in the media, but it exists across all disciplines. Employers no longer want to see your qualities in a list. These days, it’s just not good enough.

Now, the most competitive college graduates are those that have branded themselves online. They are the students who have Twitters, blogs, Tumblrs and websites. With these virtual portals, employers can get a sense of who they are hiring before paperwork is ever put through.

Unfortunately, maintaining a strong identity online can be difficult. We are amongst the first generation to have interacted with the Internet throughout our entire lifespan. This means that most of us have countless vestiges of ourselves across the World Wide Web. I myself have gone through seven or eight monikers during the past 21 years, and it’s a nagging concern that one of them might bite me in the ass later in life.
 
So most of us have cleaned up our Internet lives since emerging into adulthood. It’s resulted in a clean slate, but it’s also had a chilling effect on what we post online. Hearing the horror stories of those whose career opportunities were negatively impacted due to social networking means that we stop being honest when using it.

I have worked hard to present an identity online that represents the person I am in the real world. Through it all I have maintained my own distinct character, a property I imagine potential employers are interested in seeing.

Too often I find the Internet usernames to be mundane, nothing more than an abbreviation of a name. For purposes such as e-mail, this is appropriate. But there is something whimsical and quirky about sites like Twitter and Tumblr, services that yearn for creative and interesting input. To truly have an effective presence on these sites the user must be willing to be honest, transparent and a little shameless. Otherwise, what’s the point in using them?

Employers want to see potential hires who are knowledgeable about social networking, but they also want to get to know the person behind the screen. Be a little daring with your next post, show a little skin, shed a little shame. And most importantly, don’t be afraid. If it’s too personal, you can always go back and delete it later.


E-mail: danfleis@indiana.edu