5 Steps to Employment for the over-50: Part 4 Your On-line Presence:

As a professional, you represent a brand; your personal brand.  Okay, I know, this might sound trite, nevertheless, it is a fact that you should think of yourself as a brand.  You have a reputation that must be managed.  As with any brand, the message you are sending must be clear and consistent.  Your resume, cover-letter, and bio must reinforce your message.  Thank you letters should reinforce the key points you want the hiring manager to remember.  Likewise, your on-line message must resonate with the same message.  Your brand must be clear and consistent.

It is not uncommon to learn of job-seekers who have been successful putting their total job-search efforts into a LinkedIn campaign.  If you are not on LinkedIn, you should be.   Ensure that your profile is complete.  Otherwise, you are hurting yourself.  Employers are looking for you, but they cannot find you or if they do, your profile may not be impressive enough to be of interest.  Now is a good time to join and become active in those groups that parallel your interests.  Position yourself as a thought-leader.  Consider a paid subscription to LinkedIn to gain access to more of its capabilities.  It is not yet the most effective way of landing a job, but you must factor LinkedIn into your job-search.  Take LinkedIn very seriously!

Like your resume, your LinkedIn profile must be interesting to read.  Large paragraphs tend to make the reader's eyes glaze over.  Your message may never be read, or get through.  White space is very useful to keep the reader's attention.  Mixing up short paragraphs with bullet points will keep the reader interested.  Your LinkedIn profile must mirror your resume and other biographical information.  Since more and more employers and recruiters are using LinkedIn to source candidates your resume must be available on LinkedIn and it must be consistent with the one you are sending to prospective employers.

Ensure that your contact information is up to date.  If prospective employers are looking for you, then make it easy to find you.  It reinforces your status as a professional and will ensure that you are contacted about interesting situations.

On the issue of contact information your email needs to have a complete signature section.  Telephone numbers, email addresses, and the link to your LinkedIn page should be available.  Remember, today much of our interaction is via cell phone, so make it easy for cell phone users to contact you.

I have not heard of anyone landing a job through Face Book but I suppose that is possible.  If you are active on Face Book it is probably a good way to keep your network up to date on your progress.  It is probably safe to say that if you are over 50, your Facebook page is more about your children and grandchildren than more esoteric pursuits.  That is good news.  Prospective employers will take a look at your Facebook page to get more insight into you as a person.  I have checked out candidates in the past, and some have sent me friend requests.  I can say that I have learned things about some candidates that I wish I had never known, which raised questions about their suitability to work for my clients.  Make sure your Facebook page is interesting, but neutral. 

Google+ is becoming more important, so it is a venue that you should consider.  When setting up your Google+ homepage, ensure that it is complete and also mirrors your resume and your LinkedIn profile.  You may also consider starting a blog and developing your own website to further your on-line presence.  Send notice of your blog posts to your network.  It is good marketing.

Remember, employers are looking for you.  You need to help them find you.  On-line tools can be very useful to your job-search campaign, but only if there is consistency between them and if your message is the same across each venue.

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Jim Weber, President
New Century Dynamics Executive Search
www.newcenturydynamics.com