This posters considers what you need to do to ensure that your public domain curriculum vitae is effective for you.

1. Jon Curwin
Business School
Michael Schmidt
Centre for Academic Success
Managing Your Public Domain CV
Poster Series
No. 6 of 6
How to ‘clean up’ your reputation online?
1. Introduction
5. Get the Good Stuff to the Top
 A study from Microsoft Research indicates that 70% of online
recruiters have turned down candidates because of search results.
 You may never know if your potential employer will Google your
name but you can find ways to manage what they see and what
they don’t see.
 “The Internet knows a lot about you, maybe too much. So how do
you clean up your online reputation and get control of your image to
reflect who you are now — or how you want a prospective
employer to perceive you” (Becky Worley, http://yhoo.it/Xfz292)
Manage the content of the sites that a Google search is likely to find first:
LinkedIn is known as the network site for business professionals. It will
show early, if not first, on a name search. You control the content seen.
Google+ is big and getting bigger. Your Google+ account will quickly
climb toward the top of any listing. Again you control the content but
watch the settings.
Visit NameChk.com just to see the social networking sites open to you.
2. Show the Good Stuff
At the end of the day it is content that
makes the difference. A poor photo,
standard information or dated
information about where you live and
work and little of real interest will tell a
story! If your social media
appearance is not going to showcase
your skills, knowledge and aspirations,
then perhaps you need a strategy to
minimise your presence.
An effective social media presence
needs an investment – your time. You
need a photo or image of you that
speaks for you (just look at me). Your
photo should make you stand out as
the business professional (or anything
else) you want to be. .
Be careful with this one. You may be present on some of these sites and
this may not show on the results. Also you don’t want a clutter of out-ofdate, poorly presented profiles.
Focus on the skills that make you uniquely good and try to evidence
those skills. If you can speak publically with confidence, show that in a
linked YouTube video. If you have certificates, even a recent First Aid
qualification, try to include it. If you have realistic goals that are
relevant, like improving language skills through travel, share them.
6. Action
You need to be clear about your longer-term aims, manage limited
resources (like time) and find an approach that is sustainable.
3. Bury the Bad Stuff
We all move on and employers do understand this. Your swimming
badges from primary school will be of diminishing importance. You
want your social media presence to paint an acceptable picture of
you.
As the more recent (hopefully) good stuff rises, the dregs from the
past will sink.
Take comfort from the fact that:
• most search time is on the first page
• one picture on LinkedIn that is seen early can make a big difference
• few searches get past the third page
• any ‘bad stuff’ can be forced down to the fourth page or beyond
If your aim is to be a more
employable then:
a. you will need to update
your (traditional) CV
anyway and your related
public domain profile
b. you might consider
uploading your CV to a
website like Guardian jobs
There is a pool of resources
waiting for you:
4. Build a Strategy
Tweak your name. Any chance
you can apply for a job using a
slightly different form of your
name? If you are Bob Smith with
a slightly murky online reputation,
applying for jobs as Robert Smith
and representing yourself online
as Robert going forward could
help you distance yourself from
that rascal "Bob."
a. use Wordpress for your
website
b. sell using an eBay or
Amazon shop
c. use Flickr to share your
photos
Setup your own business,
a. Your profile should reflect
this capability and your
previous experience.
b. It could show you at work:
if you offer outdoor pursuits
or training, why not share
the pictures of your recent
long-distance walk or open
water swim.
But is your approach
sustainable?
a. Are you going to create a
presence now that will look
dated and incorrect in one or
two years? Just look at the
number of graduates that are
still students on LikedIn!
b. Will you tweet or blog for a few
week until you move on to
something else? Are you trying
to live several lives online?
The sports person, the
employable business
profession, the entrepreneur?
We would love to hear from you:
Use images to your
advantage
Start a Flickr photo sharing
site and write your name
on all the (appropriate)
pictures you post. Do the
same with Instagram,
Tumblr and Photobucket.
Manage social sites
Go over to namechk.com,
type in your real name (or
your new professional
name) and sign up for
those sites that add to your
presence AND those that
you are prepared to
maintain..
Jon Curwin
Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow
Business School
Jon.Curwin@bcu.ac.uk
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joncurwin
https://twitter.com/joncurwin
Michael Schmidt
Academic Skills Development Tutor
Centre for Academic Success
Michael.Schmidt@bcu.ac.uk
http://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidtuk
https://twitter.com/mschmidtuk