Mirrors reflect, and mirrors distort, and the Web is perhaps the greatest mirror of them all. If you’re interested at all in your professional image, you’d better start acting like a recruiter and research your own online persona. You may find that your reflection is crystal clear… but then again, you could run into some ugly distortions.

Look at these recent statistics as interpreted by one of our favorite blogs, Cheezhead, that show how regularly employers look in on your online persona:

A recent survey from CareerBuilder found that 45 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, an increase from 22 percent last year. An additional 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. Of the respondents who do conduct online searches and background checks on job seekers, 29 percent use Facebook, 26 percent use LinkedIn and 21 percent use MySpace. About 11 percent said they search blogs, while 7 percent follow candidates on Twitter.

Wow: 45%, up from last year’s 22%. That number more than doubled, so this clearly an area for jobseekers to be aware of. LinkedIn shouldn’t be a problem — it’s a businesslike place, and most people behave there — but lots of people let their hair down on MySpace and Facebook. Hint: potential employers don’t want to see you looking drunk, sexy, or silly! Check out our tips at the end of the post for doing damage control on your social networking persona.

Research Tools from the “Deep Web”

While you’re researching yourself, there are some interesting new candidates in the “online mirror” space. One notable site is pipl.com, which has been billed by TechCrunch as “so good it will scare your pants off.” Pipl uses the “deep Web” to search for results on people that you will never see using Google. The reason for this is that Google ranks pages by their importance as judged by how many pages link TO them. The deep Web uncovers Web pages that NOTHING links to. Check out what the TechCrunch reporter had to say:

It’s so good it’ll probably scare some people’s pants off when they see what information it is able to — legally — drudge up. It produces not only links to all of your profiles on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, blog mentions, and photos on Flickr. It finds mentions of your name in public records, including property records, SEC filings, and birth databases. It also finds e-mail addresses and summarizes “quick facts” about the person… Obviously, Pipl is designed for people search by name, but it also just debuted the ability to search emails, usernames and by reverse phone number lookup. The results page is designed as a “one page report” that categorizes information in an easy to read manner.

Pipl looks scary good for recruiters, and just plain scary for anyone with anything they are hoping to hide.

Our final entry of note is the most artistic and subjective of all the Web portrayals: it is an art installation called “Personas” hosted by MIT. Simply visit the site, enter your name, and let Personas go to work pulling up details from the deep Web. The information it pulls up is uncanny. It then fills out a graph showing all the components that your persona is identified with.

Here, for example, is a Personas report on RiseSmart’s own founder and CEO, Sanjay Sathe:

It’s a really interesting and beautiful way to create a portrait of oneself.

Honing Your Online Image

Tips on monitoring and controlling your online “reflection”:

• Keep good watch on your image. You can be sure prospective employers will, in this age of transparency. Be careful with social networks, but never forget about the deep Web either.
• Cultivate multiple online personas: at least one serious, professional persona associated with your legal name (JaneDoeMarketingPro, for instance), and another with a more obscure nickname known only to your personal friends. Keep rigid control over the “pro” account and keep it well separated from your fun (and disposable) nickname account.
• Figure out if there are any troublemakers with a similar name to yours, and begin the process of differentiating yourself by using a middle initial or variation on your name — even emphasizing your geographic location (Jane from California) or self-branding information (Jane the Marketing Pro) would be helpful.
• Remember that images “deleted” from social networks are often still there after you have deleted them. Search “permanently delete photos from <site>” to research the particulars. And if you need to kill off a Facebook account where you’ve embarrassed yourself, don’t merely “deactivate” the account — DELETE it. Read here for instructions on how to completely delete an account.

Have fun out there, but don’t forget that an image or comment posted on the Web can last forever. Don’t do things that you will regret when it comes time to explain it to an HR professional.

Career blogs these days are all about how to use social networking to land a job (or a candidate). But with all this talk about what you can get OUT OF social networks, not enough people are talking about what you should put INTO them.

One HR blogger we follow, Gautam Ghosh, cautions professionals against a me-me-me attitude on Twitter and similar sites in his recent post “Using social tools with an agenda.” Says Ghosh:

Often these days I come across articles that say “Here’s how you use Facebook for Recruiting” or “17 ways of effective job hunting using Twitter.” The problem is, if you merely use the tools with an agenda to recruit/job hunt or whatever, then you’re headed for disappointment. That’s because these tools are social in nature. And whether you are a marketer, PR person, recruiter or job seeker, using them badly will not just turn off the very people whose attention you strive to seek, but might also backfire on you.

While LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter all may have plenty to offer you, you can’t expect to really flourish on these sites if you aren’t willing to take it slow and offer something of value yourself.  Forbes journalist Tara Weiss addresses this in her article “Twitter to find a job.”

If you’ve never used Twitter, don’t sign up and immediately blast people with a message saying you’re out of work. Instead, build momentum slowly. Open an account and include something about your profession in your user name. Since users can search tweets by topic, that’s one way of making your feed more visible… Next, start tweeting. Offer your opinion on news, industry happenings and seminars. If someone you follow, particularly an industry leader, says something controversial or interesting, retweet (forward) it, or send the person a direct response. That can be an ideal way to get a casual but more personal conversation going.

Indeed, one of the biggest blunders a job-seeker can make is starting up a new Twitter account and immediately clamoring for a job. Yes, the infrastructure is there to make this possible, but Twitter is a real community — not just a job board!

And while plenty of jobs are listed there, the real value in joining the network is in the “loose” connections you will make, which statistics show are the most crucial in finding a job, says Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers in her article “Leverage Twitter for your job search.” One of her top tips is to start tweeting long before you follow anyone at all (in other words: contribute!). Salpeter says,

Tweet about an article, an idea or share a link of professional interest to your targeted followers. Do this for a few days. It may seem strange to be tweeting when no one is following, but you may be surprised to gain an audience before you even try. Once you have a great profile and a set of interesting tweets, start following people in your industry.

Salpeter’s final, most important tip falls right in line with Gautam Ghosh’s urging that we all give before we take in our online networks (the original inspiration for this post):

Give, give, give! Think about what you can do for others. Don’t blatantly self-promote. Instead, help promote others. “Retweet” (pass along information someone else shared, giving them credit) - you will earn followers and friends this way. Those who know (and like) you will become part of your network and will be willing to help you.

The right way to approach a social network is bearing something of interest and value. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s practical, too. When you invest time in your Twitter profile, and build relationships, you are enhancing the likelihood that people will re-tweet the information you’re offering. When you’re re-tweeted, you’re taking advantage of the medium’s exponential power! With just a small up-front investment of time and effort, you can sow something that’s really worth reaping.

According to FitnessMagazine.com, the number one song for sweating it out these days is Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack.”  Not exactly sweating to the oldies.

The question is, with the mounting cost pressures on employer-sponsored health plans, can projecting a healthy glow in interviews bring the sexy back to your job search?

Tim Sackett, executive vice president for HRU Technical Resources, on his blog Fistful of Talent, suggests some companies may be paying closer attention to evidence of good health these days when it comes to hiring:

Is making your employees go get a health screen a bad thing? Probably not … The fact of the matter is we have a broken healthcare system and most employers have to do something to reduce costs. So they can either interview under the precursor ‘does this person look young and healthy’, or we can allow them some slack to help make their own workforce a bit more healthy.”

I know what some of you are thinking: there may be age and disability discrimination issues at play here. And while those concerns should be taken seriously, there is an unmistakable trend among employers to promote fitness and healthy living among their employees — as a proactive step to reduce healthcare expenses, sick days, and other costs.

According to a report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Home Depot was so sure about the positive benefits of shaping up that the company sponsored a program to help workers set exercise goals.  Nearly 1,500 employees participated in the three-month voluntary program and few dropped out.  The result?  Increased stamina — but even more importantly, improved group and organizational goal-setting and a rise in peer encouragement.

So why buck the trend? Talent, skill, experience, a good interview, good coaching and a positive outlook remain the biggest factors in landing your next job … but being and looking healthy is a bonus that could sway in some circumstances, and a little working out never hurt anyone. Especially during the rigors of a job search.

By the way, if you’re not a Justin Timberlake fan, a couple of other hot workout songs — according to Fitness Magazine — are “It’s Not Over” by Chris Daughtry and “This is Why I’m Hot” by the Mims.   Those tunes should help you keep focused on the job search.

RiseSmart’s corporate outplacement solution, Transition Concierge, was featured in an article last week at Entrepreneur.com. Here’s an excerpt from the piece, about startups that are succeeding despite the current recession –

Sanjay Sathe’s personal experience as both a laid-off employee and an executive who managed layoffs led him to start Transition Concierge — one of the first outplacement agencies to operate solely online.

“I was prompted to look at the outplacement industry that has been offering the same type of service and the same quality of service over the last 20 or 30 years while the rest of the world has changed,” Sathe says…

[Transition Concierge] seeks to merge a high-tech approach with personal attention by using “transition specialists,” who facilitate customized professional resume and cover letter writing, career-related web seminars, weekly job leads e-mails and information on local career-related events.

“They kept tabs on me. I was really impressed,” says Jann Heringer, a Sacramento, Calif. resident whose employer contracted with Transition Concierge after a round of layoffs.

“It was important because I was jobless and I’m older and I was horrified,” says Heringer, who found another healthcare job by browsing the HR pages of companies featured in her job leads e-mails.

Read the full story — then learn more about Transition Concierge’s transition services.

I look at a lot of resumes in the course of my work, and one thing I have noticed is people taking certain liberties with the date formatting. I’m not the only one noticing; check out what Ask A Manager has to say:

I’m seeing what might be a trend of people using a chronological resume format but leaving off any indication of how long they held each position. This is really not a good idea. It looks like you’re trying to hide a series of short stays and in a pretty inept way.

And this, from Coromel’s View:

Also, about your work dates…put the month and year you were at your job.  2007 to 2009  looks like two years but if it’s December 07 to January 09 it’s basically one year.  We’re going to ask you so just put it down and we won’t think you’re trying to be cute and hide something.

The truth is, some people are trying to hide something by using this format. Maybe it’s a short stay somewhere. Others are simply trying to de-clutter their resume (in a way that hiring managers don’t really appreciate, but they mean well). Some people are contractors with a (necessarily) fragmented work history. And some of these applicants are on the older side of the spectrum, and trying to showcase their skills over their age.

There are a lot of reasons why an applicant might try to obscure dates. Let’s talk about why, and what they might choose to do instead:

Contractors and Freelancers

Undoubtedly, a lot of assignments end before a person has another one lined up, resulting in unsightly gaps across the years. The temptation to gloss this over can be great. However, hiring managers understand contract arrangements. Be up-front with the months, and simply state that you left because a contract ended. (Your contract work shouldn’t be mis-identified as full employment, anyway, so they already know!) Another great way to work with this situation is to form your own consulting company and use it to fill in any spaces between jobs — if you are busy with your own clients and also fulfilling contracts, you’re going to come across as a busy, capable person.

People with Problem Areas in Their Careers

Some people really are trying to hide a time when they were not totally sure of their career path, or took the wrong position, or even were terminated. Hiding dates is unlikely to hide this for long, though. In my opinion, the best place to deal with this is in the cover letter. Think very sincerely about why you have that date you’re embarrassed to put down, and think about what you’re seeking now, and how you have changed. Admitting that you took a job that was a bad fit can be a sign of maturity, especially if you have a convincing rationale and some proof that you have changed and grown. It is infinitely better to address any strangeness in your resume in a letter, rather than trying to erase the incident (which will probably come up in any serious investigation of your background) or allowing the hiring manager to come up with their own explanation. For more tips on presenting yourself well when you’ve been dealt a rough hand, check out this article: Enhancing Your Employability Despite Those Employment Gaps.

Older Applicants

There are instances where it is acceptable, even advisable, for older applicants to obscure some dates. For instance, removing the year when you received a degree might be acceptable if you truly feel that it distracts from your overall profile. Similarly, if you spent a very long time at just one or two companies in your career, then months are an unnecessary level of detail, and years alone should be sufficient. However, no dates at all just raises too many red flags. So trim off any irrelevant job history that is more than 15 years in the past, but properly date everything that you do include. For more excellent tips on check out this New York Times piece called Presenting Young, in Interviews and On the Job.

In summary: dates are important. Leaving them off entirely raises more than question marks — it raises exclamation points! Months are not necessary 100% of the time, but they are standard, and much appreciated. Finally, use your cover letter to make sure that any date anomalies are fully explained.

Do you tend to get tongue-tied in job interviews?

It would be nice if sitting across the desk from your interviewer on Monday morning was more like playing charades with your friends on Friday night. So whenever your mind went blank and you couldn’t find the right words, the hiring manager would jump up and down and say, “Oh, I know it! I know this one!”

But I’m afraid it’s not charades, and the interviewer isn’t going to try to guess what you’re trying to tell them. You’re just going to get a blank stare — and you’re not going to get the job.

Be Prepared

Having command of your words at a job interview starts with preparation. You need to get plenty of sleep. You should arrive early. You should have researched the company in advance. And you should have worked on those bad habits you know you have — like saying “like” too much, for example.

Your interview was no accident.  You know who you are.  Research a particular subject of significance that you can expound on with professional insight.  Learn the vocabulary so you can use it with ease. 

An “expert” in one area has the expertise to become one in another.  This gives you an opportunity to show your commitment to learning.   Practiced phrases ready to make you shine are fine. Just make sure you practiced.  You need to learn to express your experience in a convincing way, according to Evil HR Lady, who recently advised someone re-entering the job market to “use the language of HR.”

Know a Little About a Lot

Current events quizzes didn’t end with 8th grade social studies.  Read the paper; learn to pronounce difficult names and places; form opinions — not overbearing ones — on the issues of the day. 

Give the impression you didn’t jump out of bed and race to the interview.  You’re up on the things of life like you will be on the life of your job.  What’s really happening in the interview is that the interviewer is determining whether you can indeed communicate.

Drop the quizzical expressions that can trip you up in an interview.  Don’t let your face say “huh?” for you.  Practice in front of a mirror if you need to:  calm and steady does it. 

I once knew a very intelligent manager who begged forever to sit in on a meeting with the president of the company.  He asked her a question; she didn’t know the answer and her mouth fell open wide.  He never forgot.  She never got back into his office.

Power Words and Disaster Words

Make two lists and keep them around for your down time so you can read them over for reminders. On one, list the “power words” that impress — “maintained,” “negotiated,” “developed” — and on the other, list those words that do not impress — “like,” “um,” yeah,” — and, well, “you know.”

Power words will help you keep from getting nervous, which can, according to Stephanie Loyd, who posted on Lindsay Olson’s HR blog, cost you the job: 

Do not appear nervous or desperate! A client recently told me that their top candidate for a particular position was ultimately not given the offer because he appeared so desperate during his interviews with the hiring manager.

He might have won if it had been charades.

Employers and their laid-off workers are increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of traditional outplacement firms, according to a front-page story published in today’s Wall Street Journal. The Journal highlighted RiseSmart’s Transition Concierge service as a new kind of outplacement solution that Fortune 500 companies are choosing as a less-expensive, more tech-savvy alternative to traditional firms.

The article, by Phred Dvorak and Joann S. Lublin, sends an important message to every company, large and small, that is considering a layoff. The fact is, many outplacement firms offer feel-good services like grief counseling, office space and group seminars – but don’t deliver, or even attempt to measure, results. RiseSmart’s Transition Concierge service skips the lavish bells and whistles and focuses on what matters most — finding departing employees a new job, fast.

Focusing a critical eye on large, traditional outplacement firms, Dvorak and Lublin write:

As demand rises in the $4 billion-a-year outplacement business, providers increasingly offer standardized services, which some workers say offer little value … Few employers track whether outplacement works. Skeptical employees are voting with their feet: Executives estimate about 40% of workers offered outplacement services don’t show up…

The Journal story highlights RiseSmart as a low-cost, high-tech alternative to the traditional players, and cites a Fortune 500 client that chose RiseSmart after an unhappy experience with a pricier firm.

We hope this story serves as a wake-up call to HR executives to begin demanding more accountability from their outplacement firms.

An effective outplacement service – one that actually helps your departing employees find new jobs – is incredibly valuable to employers. Not only does it reduce employee lawsuits and minimize unemployment-insurance payments, but it leaves laid-off workers with a much better feeling about you as an employer. Those good feelings evaporate quickly, however, if your outplacement firm is focused on appearances rather than results.

Why not learn more about our Transition Concierge service today?

Remember the days when it was comforting to sit in your bathrobe and slippers on a Sunday morning, scan the classifieds over a hot steamy cup, and click off the jobs that were “beneath” you?

Those were the days.

But just as scanning the classifieds is old-school today, so is being quite so choosy. Finding the job is the point of the process, not stroking the ego.  Being labeled “overqualified” won’t make the house payment or feed the 401k.

In fact, being “overqualified” can be a roadblock to winning the job you want — unless you know how to overcome your prospective employer’s objections.

Here are five tips for overcoming the “overqualified” label –

1. Communicate your desire.

If you have concerns that the employer may think you’re a bit too experienced for the job you’re seeking, come prepared.  Bring a list of the reasons why you believe you’re the right fit for this particular job.  You need to show that you have the skills and the desire to do the job. The interviewer wants to be sure you won’t burn out too fast or immediately be looking to your next career move.

2. Downplay the resume.

It’s normal in an interview and on a resume to point out your qualifications and accomplishments . . . and you still need to do that.  But, pull back on the titles and awards a bit and talk about the teamwork and the cooperative efforts that made it all possible.  Highlight your broader skills, like being able to focus, dependability, commitment, clarity.  Point out what you think you will gain from the position.  What will it add to your skills and professional standing?

3. Project yourself as a role player.

Don’t come across as someone who wants to come in and rethink the game.  That can be a real turnoff.  In fact, Kris Dunn, the HR Capitalist, says so-called “stars” often fade in management roles:

Stars are often thought to have the best skills to become effective managers, so they usually get first dibs on the promotion.  It rarely works out - stars have special skills, and tend to get frustrated when the masses can’t do what they did - whether it’s make more widgets, close more sales and yes - hit the jumper off the double baseline screen with amazing consistency. Role players, on the other hand, often make terrific coaches - and managers.

4. Be flexible on salary.

Face it, one of the fears in hiring someone who seems “overqualified” is the concern you may cost too much.  Don’t totally abandon your salary target goal, but prepare to be flexible . . . and know going in to the interview what your bottom line is.  If you’re as good as you think you are, your salary will catch up to your qualifications.

5. Be appreciative.

Too many potential employers intentionally overlook candidates perceived as overqualified.  You made it past a major hurdle when you got in the door for the interview. Repay the courtesy with expressed admiration for the company and respect for the interviewer for his or her discernment and openness to consider you. 

If your interviewer believes by the end of your discussion that you really do want to work there and genuinely intend to make a contribution, then you may very well have just the qualifications he was seeking.  You can overcome the “over.”

Image source

Out-of-work jobseekers are facing a significant obstacle to finding employment and restoring their financial health: the pre-employment credit check, which is being used increasingly often by staffing professionals.

Companies who perform these credit checks say, in their own defense, that they are only engaging in due diligence and looking for general red flags such as a lack of trustworthiness or self-control.

However, lawmakers and groups such as the ACLU are saying that this practice invades privacy, has little to do with performing most jobs successfully, and forces people who have lost their jobs into a downward spiral of debt.

For a sign of the times, here’s a telling anecdote from recent The New York Times story “Another Hurdle for the Jobless: Credit Inquiries“:

Out of work since December, Juan Ochoa was delighted when a staffing firm recently responded to his posting on Hotjobs.com with an opening for a data entry clerk. Before he could do much more, though, the firm checked his credit history. The interest vanished. There were too many collections claims against him, the firm said. “I never knew that nowadays they were going to start pulling credit checks on you even before you go for an interview,” said Mr. Ochoa, 46, who lost his job in December tracking inventory at a mining company in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. “Why would they need to pull a credit report? They’d need something like that if you were applying at a bank.”

Once reserved for government jobs or payroll positions that could involve significant sums of money, credit checks are now fast, cheap and used for all manner of work.

The practice is definitely on the rise. Forty-three percent of companies conducting any type of pre-employment screening use credit checks for some or all employees, according to a 2006 study by the Society of Human Resource Management. The number was at 40% in 2004, and just 25% in 1998. We are almost certainly in excess of 45% today, and it’s quite feasible that the number is greater than one-half.

What are the current rules in the U.S. about checking an applicant’s credit? Reports Dana Dratch in her article “States weigh limits on credit checks for employment“:

Absent a state law or change in national law, employers can (with an applicant’s permission), pull a credit history and decline to hire a candidate based on what they find — even if the information has no relation to the job. And with many Americans struggling financially simply because they are out of work, legislators are seeking to prevent something they see as needlessly punitive.

While most states have no restrictions against checking an applicant’s credit, Hawaii tightened limits on the practice just last month. (Washington State had set up limits two years ago, but was the only state to do so at the time.) These are the only two states with any laws on the books about the practice, although, at the time of this writing, Connecticut, Missouri, New York and Texas are all considering proposals to limit the use of credit checks in pre-employment screening.

On the national level, Representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois have sponsored H.R. 3149, the Equal Employment for All Act, a bill that aims to prevent employers from using credit reports in their hiring or promotional decisions. As reported by Lewis Green on credit.com:

Speaking at the bill’s launch, the two congressmen raised concerns about the mounting financial pressures faced by people who are coping with unexpected difficulties, such as job loss and medical bills. Gutierrez pointed out that the major obstacle standing in the way of some people’s financial recovery is securing employment. But if they continue to be denied a job because of their credit report, it could lead to a vicious cycle. “Right now the number of U.S. employers conducting pre-employment credit checks is on the rise and too many Americans are caught in the preventable cycle of debt,” Gutierrez said. “They have been hit hard by an economy in crisis, they have fallen into bad credit and as a result they cannot do the one thing that would enable them to climb out - get a job.”

The bill does make allowances for credit scores to be checked within some limited categories of employment, such as jobs involving national security or a large amount of financial responsibility. However, Gutierrez emphasized that those are exceptions rather than the rule, and said that the ability to perform most roles is unrelated to a person’s credit history.

All proposed legislation contains exceptions for persons working with national security and/or large amounts of money. In addition, no one is proposing that criminal background checks be limited — only credit information, in jobs where one’s credit history is not relevant.

Readers, what is your take on this? Do you work for a company that checks credit reports? If so, do you recommend the practice? On the flip side, is there anyone out there who has eschewed credit checks, even if they are legally available? Finally, we’re extremely intrested in hearing from HR professionals in Hawaii and Washington who have been dealing with changing state laws. Talk to us in the Comments!

The memory of a recent overhaul and edit of an employee handbook was fresh in my mind as I came across an interesting thought from Sharlyn Lauby, the HR Bartender, in her post “The Book of No.” It came to Sharlyn’s attention that that’s what some of her colleagues called their employee manual! Her post is about turning that perception of negativity around by writing your handbook from a perspective of what we CAN do. It’s really worth a read… it gets a person to thinking about how very many outlets there are to fully communicate a company’s mission and attitude.

It got me thinking about handbooks, too, of course. They are there to clarify and crystallize business practices, set a standard of behavior, and communicate expectations and benefits to employees. One of my all-time favorites is this no-nonsense, brilliant, four-sentence employee policy by Punk Rock HR,  but of course most of you are probably looking for something a little more formal for your organization (wink).

Another thinker I like to check in with is Mr. HR, who regularly offers a “Handbook Tip of the Week” in his blog. (Click back through the archives on the left if you’re mid-handbook-project at the moment.)

Finally, I scoured the Web for some classic tips and mistakes to avoid on writing and updating (you update every year, don’t you? Not doing so is one of the top mistakes) your handbook. Briefly, here are the most common mistakes in the field:

• Failing to have the handbook reviewed by a lawyer: this is crucial, and worth the investment;
• Documenting federal, but neglecting state, laws;
• Writing above the heads of the audience (or using jargon-filled language);
• Neglecting to prominently display an at-will disclaimer (if applicable);
• Failing to obtain signed acknowledgment that each employee has received the handbook; and
• Not updating at least once a year — more often if procedures change.

With those thoughts in mind, take a look at your own organization’s handbook. Is it up to date? Too vague — or too specific? Does it describe current procedures, as they are handled now? While you’re studying the legalities and logistics, perhaps you’ll have a few moments to think about how to write this important document in such a way that your people aren’t calling it The Book of No.