Thursday 26 January 2012

Professional Pages for Professional People


Wheeler, J. (2012). Professional Page [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/75258161@N03/7068201739/in/photostream 


This week's adventure involved creating a professional Facebook page for myself. I think it is very important these days to have a professional page somewhere on the Internet because the Internet has become our main form of communication. This means that potential employers (who probably use the Internet just as much as we do) could be tempted to search up our forms of social media (ie. Twitter and Facebook accounts etc.). The problem with this situation is that personally, I do not monitor my Facebook account to ensure it remains professional. I look at my Facebook account as being my place to express who I am and have fun with what I’m doing. I do not have my personal Facebook account to present myself to potential employers. Therefore, if I’m not ensuring my personal social media accounts are professional then the chances are that many other people aren’t doing it either. Therefore potential employers might be taking a peek into your personal life without boundaries and may come to judge you on criteria not pertinent to the job. So how do we fix this situation? We have professional pages we can direct potential employers towards. This way we are able to have an online page where we pay attention to what is posted and ensure the page remains professional. This is what the employer needs to see. Our private and social lives stay separate from our professional life, just as they would have been before the Internet was around.
What do we put into a professional page? Well a professional page is essentially the online version of your resume. However, on the Internet we can make it that much more interactive. By having links to other professional pages we may have allows a viewer to get a more complete picture of you. As well, by adding links to organizations in which you’re involved (as I did with Dogs with Wings and Green Hectares, two volunteer positions I’ve held/hold), you allow viewers to look into the organizations themselves and learn more about them. Having a professional page does not mean you can’t let your personality through. Adding pictures with professional content help to further personalize the page.
Personally, my new professional Facebook page will be my way to show potential employers my focus on an animal health related career. In it I’ve included the volunteer positions I’ve held, all of which are animal or agriculture related. I’ve given a work history as well as transferrable skills I possess. As previously mentioned, I included links to the organizations I worked with as well as some information on those organizations. This way I can show potential employers I don’t only promote myself, I promote the organizations I work for as well! I also included a few of the awards I've received throughout my university career which could help show employers that my efforts have been recognized by the academic world.
Kendra is also interested in an animal health related career so check out her blog here

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you that employers may use social media as a way to sort out applicants. I think the great thing about ALES 204 is that it pointed out the importance of keeping certain aspects of our lives private when it comes to the WWW. The course definitely made me more conscious about what I am posting on the internet because I now know that what happened at a party 3 years ago could potentially affect my chances of securing a position I want now.

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