Social Media + Your Job Search, A Reminder...

Less Is Still More (this applies to almost everything)

Why Shorter Is Sweeter | To communicate more meaningfully: Cut, cut, cut!

by Rene Shimada Diegel for Inc. Magazine

Today I spent considerable time helping my VP craft two very important emails: one for a client and one for our payroll company. As I talked, she typed and we realized we both had a lot we wanted to say. And suddenly, there were just far too many words.

We stopped and deleted -- and then deleted some more. Important communication doesn’t require a thud factor. More is not more. Of course there are times when more words are necessary for diplomacy or clarification, but in this always-on digital age, “more” often dilutes or complicates your message.

Get to the point. Now. My husband used to be the worst at leaving voice messages. He told his boss what he wanted to say. Then he told his boss what he meant by that. And then he summarized for his boss what he’d just said. All in one long, excruciating voice message. “He got it!” I yelled from across the living room one evening, having heard the message he was recording. In a voicemail, just state your name, quickly explain your reason for calling and give the person a call-to-action. Do they need to call you back or is this just an FYI? Let them know. Think, should you text the message instead?

Three is a magic number. Early in my career I worked for a company called 3Com. Everything they did was in threes. Now when I feel the need to explain something complex, my 3Com days remind me to narrow everything down to the three most important points. Usually, once the top three points are listed, I realize the other info is extraneous or redundant anyway. Magic!

Use bullets. Giant blocks of text in any document require unbelievable concentration from the reader -- and few readers have time, patience or concentration to slog through dense text unless absolutely necessary. They want to scan for what they need to know, and bullets are my favorite way to communicate info quickly. Tell the reader up front what the message is about and outline your points with bullets consisting of concise phrases, not complete sentences. Finally, close with a call-to-action -- whatever it is you want the reader to do next.

Keep meetings focused. We’ve all suffered through endless meetings in which someone talks and talks and very little gets communicated. Make sure everyone is clear about the meeting goals and keep the time under 30 minutes to maintain a sense of urgency and focus. Some people hold daily ‘Scrum’ status update meetings -- 15-minute power sessions -- during which everyone stands. Also, consider whether laptops, tablets and smartphones should be allowed or banned during meetings. If allowed, people tend to tune out the speaker and read their email -- killing productivity and prolonging the meeting.

As Socrates once memorably said, "How many are the things I can do without!" Being brief in your communications requires you to stop and think about what to say and how to communicate the most important things. By getting to the point, quickly and clearly, you can make less do more.

4 Things Every Job Seeker Should Know About Facebook's Timeline Feature...

By Tony Morrison

Facebook’s hyped up new Timeline profile is here. Right now, users can adopt this new format on a trial-basis, but rest assured that this will become the standard sooner rather than later.

For a lot of job seekers, the idea of change is a little scary. After all, we all just jumped on the Facebook job search bandwagon. Now we have to adapt to a new look and learn how to use new features that could help emphasize our assets to prospective employers.

I’m here to tell you that it’s not that scary. In fact, the Timeline’s new features are great for the job seeker to share the right content with the right people, like potential employers, mentors, and colleagues.

Check out the four things every job seeker should know about the Facebook Timeline:

A picture is worth a thousand words

One of the biggest changes you’ll see in the Facebook timeline is the cover image. This large picture will be the first thing anyone sees when visiting your profile. You still have your profile picture, so your cover image can be anything from a vacation photo to a famous painting.

​As a job seeker, you want your cover image to work double-time by working for your social life and your professional brand. Make it meaningful and professional. Steer clear of anything controversial or offensive. Be creative and choose a favorite picture or statement that fully embodies who you are.​

Highlight your features

If you’ve been on Facebook for a while, you know that not all content is created equal. Certain statuses, notes, videos, and pictures are simply more important than others you share on a daily basis.

With the Timeline, you can highlight the most important content by clicking the “feature” button on the upper right hand corner of a post. Once your Timeline is up, Facebook will guess and suggest what is most important to you. I suggest you pay very close attention to what is featured and do not leave creating your personal brand entirely up ​​to Facebook.

As a job seeker, try to highlight stories that a potential employer would like to see, but aren’t so “business-y” that it bugs your friends. Highlight trips, career accomplishments, and life events that say you are a well-rounded person.

Your past is back

It was always there, but now, your Facebook past is a lot more accessible. Thanks to the Timeline, anyone can access your content since the beginning of Facebook. Don’t worry, your privacy settings are still intact, but it’s still smart to peruse what you shared way back when.

This is a great opportunity to review who gets to see what. Chances are, your initial Facebook-ing was more social than anything else, so definitely pay attention to which audiences are privy to what information.

App it up

For those of us with smart phones or who have an affinity (or addiction) for social applications, the Timeline will make it so incredibly easy to broadcast what you’ve been doing. Now you can share the movies you’ve watched on Netflix, the songs you love on Spotify, and whatever fitness accomplishments you’ve reached on Nike.

As a job seeker, try to feature your efforts on business-related applications. You can share blog posts from WordPress, collaborate with colleagues on Huddle, and invite others to join a conversation on Cachinko. When employers see that you’re taking full advantage of what Facebook has to offer, they’ll be able to infer that you’ll do the same for their company.

Read more: https://www.publish2.com/organizations/4413/newswires/571/stories/5112941#ixzz1jr8UVWUJ

Can Facebook Get You A Job?

Created by: MBA Online

Linkedin Boot Camp

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How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates

by Erica Swallow

Over the past few years, we’ve seen social media used in the job market in a number of ways — startups, small businesses and large corporations alike are diving into the socialverse to find top talent, and job seekers are likewise getting creative with social media.

Social media monitoring service Reppler recently surveyed more than 300 hiring professionals to determine when and how job recruiters are screening job candidates on different social networks.

The study found that more than 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. And a whopping 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profiles — an almost equal proportion of recruiters (68%), though, have hired a candidate based on his or her presence on those networks.

Check out the infographic below for more results from the survey, including what details on a candidate’s social profile make recruiters tick.

 

What To Say On LinkedIn When You've Been Laid Off

Many people who’ve been laid off feel like crawling in a hole, rather than broadcasting their new job status (or more accurately, lack-of job-status) to the world at large. But if you want to find another position, that’s precisely what you should do, says Sandra A.VanGilder, an executive coach with her own firm in New York.

In the current economy, with so many talented people being let go, there is “absolutely no shame whatsoever” in clearly indicating that you are out of work,” she says. “You exude confidence by not being ashamed that you’re between jobs.” LinkedIn, which functions as an electronic resume, is a valuable tool to help you spread the word.

Until they are laid off, some folks either don’t know how to use LinkedIn, or have a very skeletal presence on the site, VanGilder says. Perhaps they think of it as a job search tool (a mistaken assumption) and either aren’t looking or don’t want their bosses to think they are. Others are too busy.

Still, while three years ago, senior people thought LinkedIn was for lower-level employees, now everybody is connected and checking each other out. Often, the first thing people do when they are asked to interview someone – or even just network – is to look the person up on LinkedIn.

If you suddenly find yourself out of work, develop a “robust, 100% complete LinkedIn profile,”  VanGilder advises. This site is so user-friendly that even newbies ought to be able to find their way. Those who need guidance can rely on LinkedIn’s online tutorial or enlist help from an experienced friend or tech-savvy teenager.

In creating a new profile or editing your current one, be very public about the fact that you’re looking for new opportunities,” VanGilder says. These are issues she suggests you address as you wind your way though the key sections of the LinkedIn template:

Professional Headline

In this line, which goes under your name, give a generic description of what you do or a sample job title (for example, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer). Label yourself as what you would like to be, rather than feeling limited by what your last job title was.

Current Position

Since you’re now out of work, the “Current” heading should be deleted. Before you do that, though, cut and paste your previous company and job title into the “Past” section. Then click “edit” and “delete,” and make the “Current” heading disappear. Don’t be concerned that your job shows an end date. It’s very acceptable to be in between jobs.

Summary

In a couple of short, pithy paragraphs, emphasize your key skills and examples of accomplishments. Conclude with a sentence that says “I am currently looking for new opportunities in a couple of specific functions and industries.”

When trying to fill positions that are now open, both headhunters and in-house folks with responsibility for filling a job routinely comb LinkedIn for people who are out of work; it saves them the trouble of having to convince someone who is currently employed to switch jobs. So it’s to your benefit to indicate that you’re open to new opportunities.

For example, someone who previously worked as a chief administrative officer could write, “Actively pursuing chief administrative officer or chief human resources officer role in a dynamic, collaborative environment.” An experienced broker looking to reposition his career into investor relations could say something like, “Currently seeking to leverage my Equity Floor experience and education into Investor Relations.” (Alternatively, you can put “Actively seeking new opportunities” in your professional headline.)

Experience

Make sure your descriptions of past jobs adequately convey what you did. Standard rules of resume writing apply here: use active verbs, amply convey your responsibilities, and show results. Since words are scarcer in social media, aim for punchy (think soundbite). Get recommendations from your current or most relevant jobs that reflect varying perspectives — for example from a manager, a colleague and a client.

Education

A perennial question is whether people should include graduation dates, which are a tipoff to their age. VanGilder, who says most of her clients are between their mid-40s and early 60s, discourages them from trying to mask their age. “It’s just one more data point around which people connect,” she says.

How do you know when you’re finished? When you’re in “Edit Profile” mode on LinkedIn, there’s a metric that shows the percent of profile completeness. It will make suggestions about what you’re missing — whether it’s a photo or recommendations. Keep revising until you hit the 100% mark. Then proofread vigilantly.

Once you have found another position, you’ll no doubt be eager to update your LinkedIn profile to show where you’ve landed. But don’t neglect it after that. This social media tool is great for sharing updates about what you are doing; your entries on the home page appear at the top of your profile. So think of your LinkedIn page as an active site. You won’t want it to go stagnant.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2011/10/11/what-to-say-on-linkedin-when-youve-been-laid-off/

Facebook + Your Job Search (by the numbers)

Your Background Check Is Now with Facebook

The next time you apply for a job, don't be surprised if you have to agree to a social-media background check. Many U.S. companies and recruiters are now looking at yourFacebook-Inc" target="_blank">Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other accounts and blogs -- even YouTube -- to paint a clearer picture of who you are.
"Almost all employers do some form of background screening because they have to avoid negligent hiring," said Max Drucker, chief executive of Social Intelligence, a consumer-reporting agency. "An employer has an obligation to make the best effort to protect their employees and customers when they hire."
And now the Federal Trade Commission has decided that companies that research how you spend your personal time and what your passions and hobbies are do not violate your privacy. The agency recently investigated Social Intelligence, which scours the Internet for the information, pictures and comments you freely share with the world and sells that data to your potential employers. The FTC found the company compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In other words, the Internet is fair game.
"When someone puts their public life out there publicly, it's there to be evaluated," said Kim Harmer, a partner at Harmer Associates, a Chicago-based recruiting firm. "You find out lots of things about people just by Googling them."
It's not the party photos
You can breathe a sigh of relief about those party pictures plastered all over your Facebook -- most employers and consumer-reporting agencies will look past them, unless, of course, you're underage.
"I look at their Facebook and see how they approach what they put on it," Harmer said. "Is it immature? Appropriate or inappropriate? I'm not judging their activity but looking at how they communicate what they do and their thoughts and their judgments to the public as a reflection of what they will do with clients and team members."
Drucker said he only searches for what the companies direct him to find and stays away from giving employers information that might be considered discriminatory to the hiring process. Employers, for example, cannot legally make hiring decisions based on race, religion, marital status or disability. But they can make decisions based on whether or not they like your attitude or your ethics.
A Social Intelligence report to a company would include racist remarks, sexually explicit photos or videos, or flagrant displays of weapons or illegal activity, Drucker said. And your decision to post a naked picture of yourself might not go over well with a potential employer.
"That might not be relevant to the job, but an employer gets to determine if that's the kind of person he wants representing his company," Drucker said."We don't make the decisions. We just generate the reports."
He said he has been surprised by how many racist comments and flagrant displays of drug use people post online. "It's not just smoking marijuana. It's snorting cocaine, talking about doing Ecstasy on Twitter or a forum or message board, showing it in photos or video-sharing sites," he said.
Some companies are mining photo- and video-gathering sites using facial-recognition software. If you were among those rioting in the streets of Vancouver after the National Hockey League championship, for example, a potential boss could find you the same way the police tracked down those responsible for some of the bedlam -- in the pictures.
"We are going from the Web being a place of extraordinary anonymity to a place where your every movement could be traced if someone's taking pictures of you and posting them," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement-consulting firm. "Job seekers need to be careful because of that," so they don't make a mistake and lose a job as a result, he said.
They also need to know that not all companies use reporting agencies like Social Intelligence. Some take a hodgepodge approach to mining your data.
"People are slowly becoming aware of the consequences of posting too much information on the Web," Challenger said. "But they shouldn't wait until they make a mistake and lose a job because of it."
What you should do
Here are some tips:
-- Make every effort to find out what's out there about you. Anything that may be taken out of context should be taken down.
-- Be concerned about the accuracy of what's gathered. Drucker said his company looks at layers of social media to determine if the John Brown it is looking at is the same John Brown that the company is considering hiring. If his identity was stolen, John Brown's information could be "correct" but inaccurate.
-- Remember that bits and pieces of you are at a number of other sites, like LinkedIn, Craigslist or Foursquare, not to mention blogs, forums and wikis that you might visit.
-- Check -- and frequently recheck -- your privacy settings on social-media accounts like Facebook and Twitter.
-- Create a positive online presence by putting up your resume on a site with your domain name or getting it on forums of charitable organizations that you support.
-- If in doubt, consider hiring a company like Reputation.com to help you present, well, a better you.
Jennifer Waters is a reporter for MarketWatch, where this story originally appeared. Write to herhere.

5 Simple Steps for Improving Your LinkedIn Visibility

by Stephanie Sammons published by www.socialmediaexaminer.com

Are you wondering how to get the most from LinkedIn? Over the last few months, the LinkedIn network has made upgrades and undergone changes.

If you already have a profile created on LinkedIn, it’s a great time to revisit and refresh your presence!

Or if you’re just wondering how to get started, these 5 simple steps will help you make the most of your time and effort!

Why LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network online today, with over 100 million professional users. The average household income of LinkedIn users is over $88,000 per year, which outpaces the average income for the readership of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week!

If you are a professional or a business owner, you can’t afford to miss out on the opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, clients, partners and peers on LinkedIn. It’s a powerful audience that you can engage, interact with and influence.

#1: Complete your LinkedIn “profile box.”

When visitors first land on your LinkedIn profile, a box displaying your profile highlights fills the screen. Given the importance of first impressions, the information in your “profile box” should be complete, current and optimized.

This is your best chance to make a good impression. In many cases, someone may read through your entire profile, but most people are going to get the information they need from your profile box.

Upload a professional image. This is your very best opportunity to make a great first impression and is essential to attracting connections. No professional photo? No credibility

Create a compelling headline. You only have 120 characters at the top of your profile to describe who you are, whom you serve and how you help. Use brief, descriptive, compelling keywords so the right professionals on LinkedIn can discover you. Focus on terms that your target markets are more likely to search for. What language do they use? Make your headline text compelling, but use words that resonate with your market. 

List your current position and at least two past positions. If you don’t list at least two past positions, your profile won’t be considered “complete,” which can mean missed opportunities to be discovered by prospective clients and customers. Make sure to describe each of your roles in depth, and again use those keywords that will resonate with your target markets! It is also okay to list two or three positions that describe your current role, as I have done in my own profile. 

Add your education information. List colleges and the high school you attended in this area. Why? One of the primary search tools within LinkedIn is the ability to locate people with whom you attended school. This is a potential connection point that can open doors for you. 

Customize your “website” listings. Under the Websites section of your LinkedIn profile, you can have up to three listed. Choose the “Other” option when setting up each of these links and describe the links to your brand with relevant terms. For example, rather than using the phrase “my website,” I use “Smart Social Pro Blog.” Not only is this more descriptive, it also gives me a better opportunity to rank for those keywords in search. 

Include a link to your Twitter profile. Add your Twitter handle to your LinkedIn profile. Visitors to your profile can now follow you on Twitter directly from within your profile box! LinkedIn and Twitter are tightly integrated. You can share your tweets as LinkedIn status updates (best practice: add #in to the end of specific tweets rather than choosing to send all tweets to LinkedIn), and you can share LinkedIn status updates as tweets! 

Edit your “vanity” LinkedIn URL. An example ishttp://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesammons. This will enable your LinkedIn profile link to show up in search results under your name on all the major search engines! It is important to claim those results for your name as they provide a gateway into your personal brand.

Following these seven tips will ensure that you put your best foot forward with a comprehensive snapshot of who you are, what you do and where people can learn more about you. Your LinkedIn profile should serve as one of your most valuable professional digital assets. 

*Check out tips 2-5 here!

LinkedIn: Busting 8 Damaging Myths About What It Can Do For Your Career

By Kathy Caprino, M.A.

As a career and executive coach, speaker and recruitment consultant, I use LinkedIn (LI) extensively each day, and I truly enjoy it.  I’ve found that building my network to over 1,000 direct contacts (accessing 10 million+ indirect contacts) has been well worth the two years of time and energy.  I’m a big fan of LI – and truly appreciate the power of the tool and all the opportunities, gigs, partnerships, insights, information and support that have come my way from it.

I like LinkedIn so much that I often refer to it as the “great cocktail party in the sky.”

The analogy of the cocktail party truly fits.  LinkedIn has the following aspects in common with an awesome cocktail party:

You get the chance to connect with like-minded people who you may otherwise never have had the chance to meet

By investing just a bit of time each day, you can learn a great deal that’s of interest and use

It’s a blast to connect to people that you admire from afar, and who can teach you vital things about how to be more of what you want to be

You can determine in an instant if you want to invest any more time and energy in getting to know new folks you see

Socializing beyond your limited sphere helps you build a powerful community that supports and enriches

You can add great diversity to your pool of colleagues and peers by branching out and connecting with new people across the country and globally

Meeting new people who are doing amazing and inspiring things in this world is exhilarating

But after two years of using LinkedIn for several hours each day, and after counseling others on how to build their personal brand on LinkedIn for professional advantage, I’m witnessing some negative effects of the misguided notions people have gleaned about what LinkedIn can do for them.

I’d like to share what I’ve observed to be the Top 8 Myths about LinkedIn as a professional tool, and offer some straight talk about what you can expect it to do for you.

Here are the Top 8 Myths we need to bust:

Myth #1: LinkedIn will get me a job

Nothing is going to “get you a job” but you.  Yes, you can search new job openings in your area, and discover who posted the job, and connect with these folks.  You can find people who work at companies posting jobs, check them out, and ask their help to introduce you.  But these steps aren’t going to land you a job.  You must still do the rigorous internal and external work of knowing what you’re great at, communicating your talents, finding strong-fitting positions, then get on the radar of the hiring manager or recruiters involved, and present yourself as a highly qualified and desirable candidate.

Myth #2: LinkedIn will replace recruiters

There’s a growing fear out there that LinkedIn will replace recruiters as conduits for connecting talented candidates to leading employers.  It’s just not so.  There’s an important personal dimension to recruiting that a tool such as LinkedIn simply can’t provide.  From critically sifting through hundreds of resumes, to understanding the components of true “fit” for the hiring company, to personally interviewing and filtering candidates, and doing the extensive legwork of communicating “fit” to both employer and candidate — recruiting is a labor-intensive job that requires expert, personalized skill and attention.  Again, LI is a powerful tool that certainly has changed the recruiting landscape, but recruiters remain vitally important in the process.

Myth #3: There’s no need to fully flesh out my profile – a brief line or two is fine

OK, this one makes me nuts.  Here’s this vastly powerful free networking tool that allows you to tell the world who you are as a professional – what you stand for, how you’re different from all the rest, what you’re passionate about, and how you’ve contributed in the workforce.  And yet thousands of folks simply don’t spend any time to articulate who they are, or present themselves in a compelling, engaging manner.  As a recruiter, when I view a poorly executed profile, I see a lack of interest in promoting yourself that speaks volumes about how committed and excited you are in your professional endeavors overall.

Myth #4: Because I have over 100 (or 1000) connections, new opportunities will come easily to me

As in everything in life, quality matters over quantity.  If you have scores of folks in your community who have nothing to do with anything you care about (or who aren’t interested in what you’re doing), then your connections will not generate productive or beneficial results for you.

Myth #5: When folks accept my LI invitation, they want to partner with me or connect more deeply

I’ve learned this the hard way in my recruiting work — just because people accept your invitation to connect, doesn’t mean they care about being in connection with you in any deeper way.  It may simply mean that they saw your network as something advantageous to THEM, and they linked in for their own professional gain. Connections are interesting as far as they go – but it’s you who must make something positive of them.

Myth #6: LinkedIn is the best professional networking tool for all businesses or careers

LinkedIn is not the best tool for all businesses, jobs and careers alike.  Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be more powerful and effective, and reach more of your target audience.  Know your audience and their tastes and behaviors, and select the best tool to connect with your prospective clients, colleagues and partners.

Myth #7: The more updates I post the better

Again, quality reigns supreme here.  Choose carefully what you put out there in the world, and be respectful of the time and energy of those who read your updates.  Make sure what you share performs at least one of these important functions:  1) informs, 2) entertains, 3) enlivens, 4) supports others, and/or 5) adds value.

Myth #8: Being highly connected on LinkedIn is a sign of professional success

Having hundreds (or thousands) of connections does not necessarily equate to financial success, business prowess or entrepreneurial acumen.  It means only that the user has spent time and energy to build his/her network, and that others have felt it of some value to mutually connect.  Don’t mistake volumes of connections with professional credibility or success.

*  *  *  *  *  *

In the end, while the LinkedIn “cocktail party in the sky” has had a dramatic impact on how we connect and engage with each other professionally, it’s not able, on its own, to bring your career to the level of success, fulfillment and reward you want.

LinkedIn is only a tool, and is only as effective, engaging, and productive as the user behind it.

Facebook-Proof Your Job Search: Sanitize, Secure and Repeat

Is Your Online Identity Spoiling Your Chances?
by Phyllis Korkki, published in NYT 

YOU looked wonderful on your resume.  Your references raved about you.  The interview went swimmingly.  Yet you didn't get the job.  Oh, no: did they see that Facebook photo of you dancing on a table?  Or did they find out that you're six months behind on your mortgage payment?

You may never know why you weren’t hired, but be aware that background checks can make or break a job application. And in a data-rich world, the person with the fewest red flags may get the job.

Little hard research has been done on how hiring managers use the Internet to vet applicants. But you should assume that they are at least looking you up on search engines. So it’s wise to review the results of a quick search of your name.

It is very hard to remove anything questionable about yourself from a search engine, but you can at least push it lower by adding positive entries, said Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, a career management business in New York.

Ms. Safani says she aims to help clients create a positive professional identity on the Internet through Googleprofiles, LinkedIn and ZoomInfo, for example, as these tend to be among the first to appear in search results. Adding such entries can also help people who have little or no presence online, as that can be viewed with suspicion these days, she said.

Job seekers should also give their Facebook page a close look. “How private is your Facebook page, really?” said Lewis Maltby, founder of the National Workrights Institute, an advocacy group. Despite privacy settings, he said, it’s not inconceivable that a potential employer could become a friend of one of your friends and thereby gain access to your page.

If you are showing or saying anything on Facebook that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see, “take it down, now,” Mr. Maltby said. The same goes for friends’ posts that mention or “tag” you.

Mr. Maltby said he started his group “to extend protection for civil liberties to the world of employment because it doesn’t exist there.” But, he said, he also once ran a human resources department, and “you can’t blame H.R. people for looking at social network sites because hiring the wrong person is a very expensive mistake,” he said.

His concern is that some hiring managers may be disqualifying candidates “for ridiculous reasons that have nothing to do with the job” — for example, pictures of them drinking beer.

Chances are that employers wouldn’t tell you that a Facebook picture of you with a lampshade on your head was the reason you weren’t hired. But even if they did, they can generally refuse to hire you for any reason that isn’t specifically excluded by federal or state law, Mr. Maltby said. Such reasons include race, religion, disability or age.

And other online dangers may be lurking. You may continually be dropped from contention for jobs because of something about you on Internet databases, said Michael Fertik, founder and chief executive of ReputationDefender. His company, in Redwood, Calif., offers services aimed at helping people improve their online profiles and maintain their privacy. “Do not mistake the fact that you’re a decent person for the notion that you’ll look that way online,” Mr. Fertik said.

Without question, more data than ever is available on individuals. Hiring managers, if they were so inclined, might be able to learn about your political leanings, buying habits, hobbies and interests. But would they bother to do so? And would they hold that against you even if it had no bearing on the job?

Mike Aitken, director of government affairs at the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional association, is skeptical that many hiring managers have the time or inclination to investigate applicants on the Internet in any serious way — except, perhaps, when filling very high-level positions. Employers could even open themselves up to litigation by doing so, because candidates might contend that they were rejected for a job for a reason like religion that was revealed on a social network, he said. He also noted that such searches are costly.

Most employers contract background checks to other companies, he said, and these usually focus on things like whether a résumé is accurate, Mr. Aitken said. For certain positions, employers may also perform criminal and credit checks, he said.

Employers must obtain your permission to check your credit, but turning them down doesn’t bode well for your application, Mr. Maltby said. And if the employer rejects you for the job, offering some credible reason, he said, who’s to say it wasn’t actually because of the credit report? That’s a strong argument for checking your credit report for mistakes, and developing a good explanation if your credit score is genuinely poor (as it may well be if you’ve been out of work for a while).

Clearly, it can’t hurt to do a little research on yourself before sending applications. What you learn may surprise you. As Ms. Safani said, “Taking control of the situation is always a better strategy than sitting back and seeing what they find.”

Linkedin Optimization, Part 6