Job Seekers - Mind Your brand!

When most people think of a brand, we often think of a large corporation (Starbucks, Target, etc.) who pumps millions of dollars into brand awareness. But most job seekers (especially recent college graduates) need to learn something very important- you have a brand identity, and you need to protect it at all costs (unless you want to be serving latte's at one of the aforementioned companies while drowning in debt).

There is a good chance that anyone under the age of 25 vaguely remembers a time when they were not socializing online. Most people have Facebook or Myspace accounts. A large number of people blog or tweet about the seemingly mundane tasks we all do every day. We post photos, respond to friends, joke, brag and generally carry on as if we live in a bubble that only our closest friends care about. But the fact of the matter is, the web is not a bubble, and if you're not careful, that totally drunk, half naked picture of you in Cancun will end up in the most unlikely hands; mine.

And why does it matter? Because *I* am most likely hiring *you*.

In a world where privacy rights are vehemently protected and protested, you may have fallen victim to the largest interview flaw in your life. I read your Facebook profile.

Not only that, I know exactly what you thought of me and how you thought the interview went. I know if you have other job opportunities, how much time you have before you have to sleep on a friends sofa, and, by following your social networking activities, I can make my own judgment on whether you are reliable, hard-working, trustworthy, etc. I've done my homework. Well, actually, you did my homework. I read your tweets. I went to your half-finished website (maybe it was a class project?) and visited all of your links. And I did it all in ten minutes.

Your brand identity is looking pretty bad right now, and you don't have any pro-active PR to make me think you are perfect candidate for the job.

What I see is that one of your favorite websites is Adbusters.org where I get smacked with the proclamation:

"We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society".

Whether you like it or not, your brand now reads: "anti-capitalist rabble-rouser bent on changing the way you run business".

My recommendations?

1. If you are actively looking for a job right now, the damage may already be done. Google does a great job indexing the web, and your life. Type your name into Google and see what comes up. Anything incriminating? Well you're probably too late (I can always check cached pages).

2. Be sure to lock down your Facebook account. Make sure the public can see as little as possible and take down the profile picture of you and the beer bong. Myspace? Delete your account, isn't that for children? :)

3. Make sure your tweets are appropriate. You may want to keep your posts to what you're eating or watching. Don't carry out your life drama online (until you get the job).

4. If you have a website, make sure your contents and links are vanilla at best. You don't want to ace an interview only to lose it because your political, religious or social views are different (even if you aren't a radical, you never know what is going to rub someone the wrong way).

Mind your Brand. In this world, it is not just about your resume and your list of accomplishments. You need to treat yourself like a business. Just like a fast food restaurant strives to be clean (or at least to be perceived by the public as clean), you need to protect your identity as if everything on the Internet is part of the collective work that is your resume.