Getting your player ready...
In case you haven’t noticed, the old-boy network for finding jobs isn’t old anymore, isn’t all boys and now prefers high-end coffee shops to exclusive clubs.
When not sipping lattes, many networkers in the professional world now meet around electronic water coolers, sharing career buzz via Internet media ranging from email and message boards to websites, chat and blogs. This cyberspace of job hunting abounds with useful information and helpful people; it’s also full of misinformation, dead ends and the occasional economic or social predator who’s looking to take advantage of people. Follow these tips for getting the most from online networking while protecting yourself. Don’t give yourself away: Keep personal data, especially identifying information, to yourself until you have reason to trust your correspondent. “One of the freaky things about online relationships is that you can overexpose yourself,” says Darling. On the Web, one piece of information – name or address or phone number – lets your genie out of the bottle. Also be careful about disseminating documents, like your rèsumè, where your identity is embedded. Set up a safe email address: Consider establishing a separate email account for professional networking. Choose an email alias entirely unrelated to your real identity, and be sure the email service doesn’t allow anyone to retrieve information you may have provided, like what you entered in a registration form. Watch what you say: What you write in an online forum may be retrievable by search engines for years. You can imperil your good name and even lose your shirt by recklessly trashing an associate, boss or employer. Get a voodoo doll instead. Safety in numbers: Be wary of face-to-face encounters with people you’ve only known online. “If you meet people in a group, a public place is pretty low-risk,” says Johnston. Infect others with good ideas, not viruses: The only thing more destructive to your reputation than spamming the world with your rèsumè is allowing a PC virus to send itself to everyone in your address book. Install antivirus software, keeping your subscription current. – Copyright 2014. Monster Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You may not copy, reproduce or distribute this article without the prior written permission of Monster Worldwide. This article first appeared on Monster, the leading online global network for careers. To see other career-related articles, visit career-advice.monster.com.
