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.

Invest in Yourself

I’ve been working on developing some training material for our campus ambassador program. One of the topics that I’m covering is “Communicating our value proposition”, which lead me to do research on employee value propositions.

Examples*:

General Mills: “a great place to start, a great place to stay. . . We are highly committed to an environment that supports the varying needs of all our employees inside and outside of work.”

Accenture: “some of the most creative, forward‐thinking people in the business world … from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds … able to work in a dynamic and professional environment that values each person's perspective

Google: “Into being challenged? Into having fun? Want to change the world? If the answer is yes, then you've come to the right place.”

Companies with successful value propositions are able to source from a much deeper pool of talent. The truth is that the better you brand your message and live the brand the more people want to work for you. And if the brand isn’t built from the inside, few may believe it on the outside.

I believe the same principal applies to candidates. There is buzz going around about branding yourself. There is a lot of merit in the discussion but it is actually very simple. The candidate that is able to present a complete package with a concise message is more likely to get job leads and further in the interview process. What I mean by the complete package is: quantifiable results from work and life experiences + tangible skills+ clear communication (written & verbal). You can have a great resume but if you aren’t able to successfully articulate the experiences on the resume or worse if there really aren’t solid experiences to back up the text on a resume then it’s not going to get you very far.

A job is in an investment. It is all the experiences and tangible skills acquired that piece together to create a career. Even if it’s not your ideal job you should be thinking about what skills you are going to develop in that job to help you obtain your next job. Invest in yourself so that others will invest in you. How are you developing the experiences to create your value proposition?

*Sartain, Libby: Brand for Talent (2009)