Define Your Job Search Brand

(Previously published in the June 2007 issue of Netshare's Executive Update ezine as "What's Your Job Search Brand?")

As savvy job seekers know, substantial job search activity takes place online these days. Despite the technology advances, though, one issue remains essentially the same: How do you differentiate yourself from everyone else who's after the same prize you are? How do you out-class the competition?

Do You Have a Brand? Are You Communicating It?

Television ads sometimes use a technique that starts by showing everything in black-and-white and suddenly puts something in color—an image that, not coincidentally, promotes their product or service. One reason this technique works is that it quickly focuses your attention on their product or service. The presentation makes that company's offering stand out distinctly from the crowd (its competitors).

Branding in a job search plays a similar role. How can you develop and communicate a brand for yourself in order to progress in your job and career? It's a complex topic, but one critical method is to identify your unique value and how you can use that value to benefit employers.

Also, it's important to review impartially (or have someone else do it, if you can't) key elements of your skills, experience and personality and how those can make you attractive to employers. Then you can map out a plan to convey that message quickly and compellingly—in your resume, cover letter, pre-screening phone call, first in-person interview, and so on. You need to be able to think and speak in terms that directly strike a chord with employers and inspire them to think: "We could really use someone like this!"

Even after you've decided what your brand is, and how you want to communicate it, you're a long way from done. One of the challenges you may face involves a unique online phenomenon known as digital dirt—the electronic version of negative press, which has a much more pervasive and long-lasting effect than its print-copy cousin.

Digital Dirt: Why Should You Care?

If you haven't ever looked to see what comes up for your name online, you should try it—particularly if you're engaged in a serious job search or pursuing a career advancement opportunity. The result can range from good to terrible. What you don't know is "out there" can hurt you. Recruiting industry statistics show that about 85% of recruiters Google candidates, and over 40% rule out candidates because of what they find about them online.

How do you discover whether you have any digital dirt online? Start by doing a Google search for your name, with the words in quotation marks. For example: "Harrison Washington," not Harrison Washington. This query format helps keep results such as "lived in Harrison County, Washington" from being included in the search results.

Another identity-search resource is Zoominfo.com. It doesn't bring up everything, and some of what it does bring up may have nothing to do with you, but it might also produce results that Google misses.

From a job search or career management perspective, you need to be aware of where and how your name appears online. Ignorance is not bliss! Numerous possibilities can account for digital dirt, including such things as these:

• You joined a controversial organization, and your name is connected with it online.
• Someone posted a derogatory comment about you in a blog.
• You posted critical remarks in your own blog about a company you used to work for.
• A criminal stole your identity and generated negative exposure as a result.

Digital Dirt vs. Digital Gold

What should, or can, you do if you discover you have digital dirt? Like the ancient alchemists, try to turn it into digital gold! Seriously, your best alternative is to focus on generating such compelling good-news buzz about yourself that it forces the negative material far down on the search results, where few people will have the patience to find it. You should be doing this anyway, since it makes you easier to identify—and more attractive—to recruiters who are searching for candidates like you.

You can take a number of steps to develop that digital gold, including the following:

• Start your own blog and post frequent comments designed to communicate and reinforce the online identity you want to establish.
• Comment on other reputable blogs that cover topics relevant to your background.
• Write and submit articles to sites that specialize in areas germane to your field.
• Join at least one social networking site, such as LinkedIn, and post a profile that highlights your experience and accomplishments. Recruiters do search such places when they're looking for candidates.