Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Are you visible to recruiters?

As a recruiter, I love the thrill of the hunt. I get excited when I type search strings into Google and find great candidates. Creating an amazing Boolean search string to me is like being a little kid in a candy shop. But recently, I was conducting a search and wasn’t finding very many qualified candidates. I was able to go into cyber sleuth mode and find a couple, however, I wondered how much easier it would have been had these couple of candidates optimized their online presence. Creating your online brand and persona is the buzz right now and not just for HR.

The adoption of social media is on the rise and individuals are using it on a regular basis. In other words, we are embedding it into our daily or weekly routines. So I began to wonder about the four big new media tools, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. I’m sure in due time someone will come up with a return on investment formula to calculate the amount of effort needed to go into your online brand in order to be found. But for now take advantage of the sites were you have created a profile to better position yourself to be found and take full advantage of search engine optimization and keywords.

Most individuals, including myself don’t take full advantage of creating profiles that are meaningful to our network while also allowing those outside our network to find us.

Help recruiters find you:

1) Create complete profiles that have targeted keywords. (i.e. fill in all of the blanks and not just the required ones) Tips for your LinkedIn Profile

2) Post a digital resume somewhere on the internet and create links back to it from various sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

3) Make new connections online with individuals with similar interest and not just friends to expand your network.

4) Be a reference for someone and let them list you. Sometimes recruiters may not be interested in a particular individual but they will be interested in one of the references listed.

5) Be active and engaged with new media tools and don’t be afraid to branch out into something new.

I would be interested in hearing about some of the ways recruiters have found you online.