Job Search and Your Social Media Resume

Job Search and Your Social Media Resume

Job Search and Your Social Media Resume

If you haven't updated your resume in a while, you'll find that more than just the content will need to be refreshed. Today's job seekers can find greater opportunity to showcase their talents than ever before through a new twist on presenting their credentials: the social media resume.

The concept of the social media resume developed in the first half of 2008-some reports say it was Christopher Penn who came up with the name and idea.

Not a resume in the sense of a traditional paper document, the social media resume includes your resume, PLUS the sum total of "you" online, specifically geared to your work life and experience.

This can include your various social networking profile pages, audio podcasts, video clips, articles you've written, forum posts you've made...to name just a few Possibilities. It can cover anything about your unique skills, personality, background, expertise, and achievements-all revolving around your employment background.

The social media resume can be a source of angst for job seekers-particularly those who had a hard enough time with putting together a conventional resume. But the social media resume is worth the extra time. Once you have a solid traditional resume in place, the social media resume becomes an exercise in showcasing your strengths as well as your skills in the online space.

The value of the social media resume is that job seekers are able to create a substantive and accessible resume for hiring managers that reflects their personal brand and its positioning in relation to the candidate's desired employment opportunities.

In essence, social media has enabled job seekers to reverse-engineer the recruiting process. Instead of submitting their resumes out to employers, their resumes become a vehicle to pull employers in. It is basically a walking billboard of qualifications and credentials that can be searched and shared.

The easiest way to begin is to create a web page or blog. There are many free openware applications that will enable you to establish a presence on the web For example, WordPress and Typepad are two very user-friendly solutions. If you decide you'd like to get a little fancier, most free applications also have a paid version, which can enable you to do a bit more. For most job seekers, freeware works just fine.

You will need to purchase your domain name, as this will be key. Sample URLs that work well include yournameRSUM.com, yourname.com, yourname.net, yourname.org. Once you have the domain name and your page has been set up, you'll want to include this on everything: business cards, paper resume, sample work, or other marketing materials you might create as part of your job search.

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