It may not be your resume holding you back from getting that dream job;
It could be your Social Media

With the high levels of unemployment and the competition for the limited number of jobs available, you may have to rethink your employment-marketing plan.  Yes, your employment-marketing plan.  As with any item that is bought, sold or traded, you too are a product being offered to an employer.  That means that from every angle an employer can view you, you should have the features and offer the benefits that set you apart from the crowd.  In many cases that means having the education, the certifications, and the experience to be the product the customer wants to buy.  You might have all the bells and whistles that the employer is looking for to fill the open position, only to find out that they may have selected a different candidate for the job.  Why you ask, it could be the information collected from Social Medias, such as Face Book, LinkedIn, MySpace or the other numerous Social Media programs on the internet today. 

Employers today are getting more and more perceptive on ways to research your background without running expensive background checks, credit reports and criminal history records prior to ever offering you an interview. 

Several ways that you can protect yourself is to make sure the only information people can find is positive information.  Think of it this way; is this information the kind of information I would like my Grandmother to see about me?  Companies do this all the time and spend a great deal of money removing or burying information that is derogatory about their company and you should too.

Some areas that you should focus on; include age, extreme political views, extracurricular activities that may not be deemed suitable or acceptable that could be listed in your Social Media listing.  In addition, friends, comments or photos that may be on your Social Media profile or wall can be disastrous to your job search.  Several ways to protect yourself is to simply delete your profile completely and not use these Social Medias, but this too can be nearly impossible to achieve since the data is not deleted, but simply hidden from view.  Other ways include not allowing anyone outside your group of friends to view the data.  That means you need to verify that everyone in your friends, colleague, or associate lists are actually people you know and trust.

Remember, there are great things about the “Information Age”, but sometimes too much information can hurt your reputation and your chances of getting your dream job.

Scott Christianson
2010