Professional Profile – Yay or Nay?

Hello friends! Happy mid-week!

Let’s first talk about WHY we need an online professional profile.

There is an increasing trend of recruiters conducting employment background searches and searching for talent on the web. Your online presence is gradually replacing your resume. Employers are viewing your profiles to determine what kind of person you are, who your connections are and how you present yourself. In another words, they want to know the authentic you!

Alright! Now let’s take a look at HOW to develop your online professional profile:

1. Get the picture.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so what does your professional photo says about you?

“This KID probably just want to have FUN.”

“AH~ HA! This LADY is READY.”

A job site known as The Ladders uses their eye tracking heatmap to find out that recruiters spend 19% of the time on your online profile looking at your picture.

2. Show your star qualities.

Post your work history, key accomplishments, certificates etc which can provide the employers with a clear sense of your capabilities.

3. Talk the talk.

Bring in key industry terms: ‘Digital Marketing’, ‘Business Development’, ‘Human Resource Management’, etc to describe your skills, specialties, positions of interest so employers can find you online easily.

 4. Make the right connections.

 Be selective about who you are connected to because employers may contact these individuals for insights on you.

 5. Keep it fresh.

Update your profile regularly and be active. Post useful advice and comment on articles or any industry forums in the site.

Most importantly, be AUTHENTIC. You wouldn’t want to face difficulty in meeting the expectations set out by your boss.

  Now, WHERE can we have a professional profile?

There is an increasing number of social networking sites that are focused on business users. Such networking sites are Plaxo, Ecademy, Fast Pitch, and the most discussed of them all – LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 330 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Many of these employers or hiring managers access directly to LinkedIn to source for candidates.  Even when they google about you, they will end up in your LinkedIn page because most likely your profile will appear at the top of the search results. LinkedIn never actually call themselves a ‘social network’, they prefer the term ‘professional network’.

LinkedIn is not only for the professionals who are high up there, mostly the adults (as I’ve always thought it is), but it’s for us, the young people, the next generation as well!

Having an online professional profile creates job and network OPPORTUNITIES especially in the digital age. Start your professional story now!

References:

Schawbel, D. (2011). 5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will Replace Your Resume in 10 years. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/02/21/5-reasons-why-your-online-presence-will-replace-your-resume-in-10-years/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Officeteam.rhi.mediaroom.com, (2014). OfficeTeam Survey: One-Third of Managers Believe Online Profiles Will Replace Resumes – Feb 10, 2011. [online] Available at: http://officeteam.rhi.mediaroom.com/OnlineProfiles [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Forbes, (2014). 8 Things Today’s College Students Must Invest In To Get Hired. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2014/05/12/8-things-todays-college-students-must-invest-in-to-get-hired/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Asghar, R. (2014). Your LinkedIn Profile: Go Big Or Go Home. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/02/12/your-linkedin-profile-go-big-or-get-lost/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Sundberg, J. and Sundberg, J. (2012). Why LinkedIn is More Important than Facebook or Twitter. [online] Undercover Recruiter. Available at: http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/why-linkedin-more-important-facebook-or-twitter/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Press.linkedin.com, (2014). LinkedIn – About. [online] Available at: http://press.linkedin.com/about [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

SitePoint, (2012). 20 Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals. [online] Available at: http://www.sitepoint.com/social-networking-sites-for-business/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].