Follow the trail that follows you
Posted on July 20, 2007 in Online Tools by DM
Nick has become the victim of a company down-sizing - a situation which I certainly do hope evolves into a door opening rather than a door closing.
His post reminded me of something I wrote a few months ago about modern-day job-hunting. On another blog, I posted about the notion that your friends may not be the only ones seeking you out on MySpace and other social networking sites. (When I launched DMweblife, I moved that post over here.)
Employers, too, may be checking you out - not just by “Googling” your name but by using social site aggregators to seek out all the various profiles you’ve put on the web. If any of these happen to include information or photos you wouldn’t want to share with an employer, you may find yourself blushing in your next job interview - or perhaps excluded from consideration all together.
Here are a few of the sites potential employers could be using - if they’re social media savvy - to learn more about you. I’m sure there are more, so if you know of any be sure to post them.
- PeekYou.com - boasts some 50 million-plus profiles, but I wasn’t among them. UPDATE: Okay it did find me - lots of info, too!
- Wink.com - this one found a lot older stuff… a few things I’d forgotten about (though nothing embarrassing - LOL)
- Zoominfo.com - focuses on your employment history. It only found my current position, where I’ve been for 7 years.
- YoName.com - searches major social networking sites; found me in lots of places.
- Ex.plode.us - searches major social sites, including some I use, but did not find me by name or username.
And finally, a resource that works for you in the job hunt (well, the above could too, if you always behaved yourself and posted only professional-type stuff…) Anyway, someone asked me recently if I was on LinkedIn yet, and I wasn’t… then a few days later I heard someone else say, “Yeah he’s on LinkedIn…” and so I finally went and looked at LinkedIn - it’s a professional networking site that lets you find your current and former co-workers, network for jobs, etc.
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Very interesting information!
Isn’t it?
I’m sure there are many more of these types of search sites… who knows WHAT they’re all finding! LOL Glad you stopped in, Amy - thanks! ~ Janet