Have you ever ‘googled’ yourself? It can be a surprise just how much information there is about you on the Internet and it is not always information that you would like your current or prospective employer from seeing!
From paying for a car park via a mobile to becoming almost a cashless society, New Zealanders are famous for being early adopters of all sorts of technologies and using technology to their advantage.
Being a nation of travelers New Zealanders have embraced social networking to keep in touch with friends, colleagues, past contacts and now increasingly to open up job opportunities.
Whilst online networking is useful for keeping in contact with friends, it can be a very successful means of assisting you in finding a new position.
Around 80% of roles are never advertised and key to tapping into this ‘hidden job market’ is to position yourself appropriately online and utilise professional networking websites in actively finding a new position.
As of January 2008 there were over 300,000 users of Facebook in New Zealand. Professional networking sites are also on the rise, with sites such as LINKEDin hosting over 8,500 New Zealanders, and growing.
New Zealand job hunters now need to ensure that their online presence will help boost not hinder their career.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
• Google yourself and review what comes up from the eyes of a prospective employer.
• Start a LINKed in profile, or update it to keep it current.
• Do a search on your industry and find any relevant local blogs or social sites – participate by replying to posts or submitting your own comment.
• Sign up to Kea – ‘New Zealand’s Global Talent Community’ – they connect with over 23,000 Kiwis in over 174 countries around the globe.
Whether you are thinking of returning to New Zealand in the short term or the long term when it comes to online networking the Kea website sums it up well:
“Kapohia nga Taura here ki Aotearoa – take hold of the strands that link you to New Zealand”.
