Looking For Job? How's Your Online Presence?

At no time in history than now is the need for jobseekers to establish a good and credible online presence that will distinguish and help them compete favourably in the present competitive job market. Companies are going online, transacting online, and also searching for workers online. Many top organizations do background checks of applicants' profile on the internet as part of their pre-employment screening process.

The true identity and persona of anybody today can be seen by simply scanning their social media pages. You may lie in your CV or interview, but your online presence will definitely reveal the hidden details about you, much more than you can imagine. These details can either help or totally destroy your chances. Just try doing a search of your full name on Google, you'll probably be shocked at how much of your information is out there.

The Issue About Your Online Presence

The real issue is this: is your online presence in sync with the brand identity, character, and personality you wish to portray? For instance: are you claiming to be a very good, humble, accommodating and easy-going person, while your online presence shows you as an abusive, impatient, quarrelsome, intolerant, and discriminative person who insults everyone with a different opinion? Think about it.


On one hand, companies are looking to employ the right people who will work hard and fit in with the existing team. It's the norm these days for most companies to research their applicants' online activities.

A very close friend who is a doctorate degree student in the U.S. recently said, and I quote: "in the USA, they use artificial intelligence to scrutinize your social media interactions, or the companies would contract a third-party IT firm that will perform due diligence on prospective candidates. No responsible organization wants to bring in a WOMBAT (waste of money, brains, and time) or a toxic person who will constitute a nuisance or a workplace pollutant. Some people are just tough to work with; it's an attitude problem. It saves companies a whole lot of resources to keep such people away from their systems".

On the other hand, prospective job applicants should endeavor to establish good online presence as many companies simply search for, and contact, applicants online. This is because the cost of advertising and finding the right people have become increasingly difficult and time-consuming over the years due to the number of people applying for one job role. In Nigeria, as reported by Punch Online, over 55.4 per cent of young people aged 18 to 35 are unable to find suitable work to earn a living. Nearly a quarter of the entire Nigerian population is out of work and over 20 per cent is underemployed, and the unemployment rate may increase from 23.1% to 33.5% by 2020; the case is not different in other parts of the world. With this in mind, you can see how difficult it is for graduates who are faced with the prospect of applying for jobs after at least four years of hard slog at the University. 

How To Stand Out From The Crowd

It is quite clear that the importance of getting noticed is extremely high, but how do you go about it? Well here are some tips: 

First, it is a good idea to have an online platform that represents you. Places like LinkedIn are a great platform for an online CV. But whatever you do, don’t let your own personal social media activities affect your online presence negatively. Just imagine that your would-be employer scanned through your social media pages only to find out you post nude pictures, porn videos, hate speeches, portraying yourself as intolerant of other people's opinions by making comments that promote malicious stereotypes. What do you think he/she would do?

Secondly, you can either keep your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts private and create public job sensitive accounts so that employers can see that you are active online; or you make sure your social media outlets are in perfect sync with your whole positive personality, else you will be judged as living a double standard life and cannot be trusted.

Check Out A Platform Called: "About Me"

Another great tool is something called "About Me" (https://about.me): this is an online platform that allows you to create your own online website, all about you (a nice credible online presence tool). It is basically another online CV and another way to introduce yourself to the employer. If you are applying for a job that involves a lot of writing such as a copywriter or a content writer or a journalist, having a blog as an online presence and format to prove your writing skills is a great idea. Luckily, you can start a blog with WordPress or blogger 100% free. It helps both when applying and within job interviews to show hands-on, your skills.

After you have applied for your chosen job, and you are lucky enough to receive an interview you need to make sure you are ready for one. One of the most important things to do to prepare yourself is to research the company; this you can do online too. If you sit in the interview and don’t know who they are or what they do you will look silly when they begin to ask questions like "How would improve the business" etc. You need to not only keep your CV etc. up to date but your knowledge of the industry. Make sure you know what is happening, what is going on in the news and whether there have been any big developments in the industry. This will also prove you're online presence and research ability.

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