The mighty Google

In order to build something, one must have a foundation. Since we are talking about how to build your professional career, it is important to know where you are starting; perhaps you already have a foundation, which could be fortunate or unfortunate. What is the best way to figure this out? Google yourself. It sounds strange, but just type in your first and last name and hit search. What are the top five results? More importantly do you find those top five results acceptable? Would you like a future employer to know those things about you? There will most certainly be links to your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ if you have those accounts. If you are a student there will probably be some obscure article from your college paper as a result. Then there will be the standard 'profile engines' that claim to know everything about you such as: White Pages, or The Profile Engine, or Pipl Directory. Just ignore these. The important lesson is that employers may be able to see your social media activity. Think of your pictures on Facebook, and whether these are good or bad if seen by employers. You can edit settings in all your social media to limit access, and I hope you already do that. However, how could you provide a meaningful link that will appear not only in the search results but right at the top? LinkedIn is the answer.