Your digital dirt could be hurting your job search

Have You Ever “Googled” Yourself?

If not, it’s probably a good idea to try it and see what you find.

A wealth of information about most of us is at any prospective employer’s fingertips and could help or hurt your chances of getting the job you want. Even if you don’t have a public Facebook profile, an employer could find out about political donations you’ve made, read about you on a blog, find a news article about you or find information about a lawsuit to which you were a party.

If not, it’s probably a good idea to try it and see what you find.

Some employers even research candidates online before deciding whether to interview them, so your Web presence is important.

Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to get control over your “digital dirt.”

1. First, research yourself thoroughly to uncover everything that an employer might be able to find and evaluate whether any of the information about you might turn off a prospective employer.
2. Fix any negative information that is under your control, like removing inappropriate comments from friends on your Facebook profile and setting your social networking profiles to private.
3. If there is unwanted information about you on a blog or website, evaluate carefully whether it might be appropriate to politely approach the webmaster about having the material removed.
4. Start working on generating positive information about yourself online. The intent is that when someone searches for you, the positive information will come up (instead of negative information or nothing at all). Some examples of this would be a press release about something you accomplished, a thoughtfully prepared public LinkedIn profile or your name on the website of a professional association to which you belong.

In some cases, if your online reputation is severely tarnished (like if the top 20 results for your name on Google are all about your getting arrested), it might be necessary to hire SEO professionals who specialize in “online reputation management.”