Have you Googled Yourself Today?

I just finished reading Career Distinction by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixon. The authors stress the importance of proactively and continuously building professional credibility, visibility, personality, and professional style to build and nurture your personal brand. This strategy is one of the most important components of an effective career management strategy. Arruda and Dixon speculate that in the future, employers will be actively looking for candidates with greater frequency than candidates will be looking for employers. Therefore a strong on-line presence will be key to a candidate's future job search success.

One of the best ways to assess the strength of your current brand is to monitor your on-line identity via a regular Google search. Arruda and Dixon recommend Googling yourself every Monday morning to stay on top of your identity metrics. Keep track of the number of times your full name (enclosed in quotes) is listed and the relevancy of each listing. If you have no Google presence or if you share your name with others, don't despair. It's never too late to start building your own unique on-line brand. Check out tools such as Zoom Info, Ziggs, and Naymz to get started. Everyone will need at least "15 minutes of fame" (or at least three relevant pages on Google) to compete for jobs successfully in the 21st century.

Posted by Barbara Safani