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WHAT IS ONLINE REPUTATION:

Online reputation management, or ORM as it's known, is the practice of making people and businesses look their best on the Internet. To accomplish that, people need to control their online search results because they frequently contain inaccurate, misleading, or outdated material which can adversely influence how web searchers view them.

WHY IS ORM IMPORATNT:

Employers certainly use the interview process to find these qualities in candidates, but they’ve also increasingly begun to use the Internet to gather information that might not come up in an interview. A good online reputation will go a long way toward helping you land that job. A bad online reputation, however, could also cause an otherwise competent and qualified candidate to be passed over.

A 2009 Microsoft-sponsored study revealed that 79 percent of US job recruiters and hiring managers use the Internet to research potential job candidates. With numbers like these, students should make their online reputations and “personal brands” a primary concern. Those who do will have a natural advantage in the job market upon graduation, regardless of their degrees. Online reputation management for college students leads to online reputation management for graduates.

If you are looking for a job, you need to be aware of your digital footprint – the information connected with your name online. Companies and recruiters routinely check search engine results to learn more about potential employees.

In fact, 90% of executive recruiters say they conduct online research of potential candidates, according to ExecuNet. Up to 70% of employers who have used LinkedIn say they’ve chosen not to hire a person based on what they’ve found out about them online. However, only 27% of employers give job seekers the opportunity to discuss the online content that is associated with their name, such as social media profiles, blog posts and photos.

This suggests that job seekers should be thinking as much about their online persona as their interview attire. Questionable content and social media red flags can take a promising candidate out of the running, but the savvy job seeker can cultivate a positive digital presence. Here’s how to screen and protect your online reputation and avoid ending up in a potential employer’s pile of rejected candidates.