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For many careers, people want to be perceived and portrayed as professional, trustworthy, ethical, open-minded, adaptable, flexible, and willing to learn, along with many other similar qualities and characteristics. This is an important aspect of developing a professional reputation, which serves as a proxy for a person while on the job, at work, and developing their career through new jobs and opportunities.
From a personal perspective, many people apparently aren’t that concerned about their reputation as a person. As a society, we are cataloging our personal lives, sharing details through posts, profiles, and photos. Private moments, along with personal beliefs, opinion statements, and sometimes intimate details are shared via social networking websites. For some people, they provide a chronological description of most of their waking moments. One question for those who are so involved in using social media to document their personal lives is this: Would you walk up to a stranger and hand them this information?
The same question should be asked about providing the same type of personal information to an employer, and more importantly, to a prospective employer. If an employer, hiring manager, or recruiter were to search the Internet now and find someone’s photos, posts, and profiles on social media websites, would that affect their career reputation?
For anyone trying to build or develop a career, especially those looking for a new job, they must be absolutely concerned about their professional reputation and the influence of their personal reputation, which is significantly influenced by easily accessible and online sources.
a personal reputation
Before you begin to develop a plan for managing your professional reputation, first consider your personal reputation. Start by asking yourself how you would want others to represent you, including your current employer, if they were to search the Internet now. It may not be a concern for your friends and family; However, do you post information or photos that could negatively impact your career if seen by employers or recruiters? There have been several incidents in the news in recent years involving people being fired from their jobs due to personal messages and opinions that were expressed on social networking websites such as Facebook.
Also, consider the details of your profession and what someone in your line of work is expected to demonstrate as a person. For example, as an educator, I am expected to have strong ethical values and anything I post on social media should reflect that point of view to me as a person. In other words, what I post should not be in direct conflict with how I am viewed professionally. If I were to post something that creates a conflict between who I am as an educator and who I am as a person, it could have a negative long-term impact on my career. The impact can be difficult to accurately assess, as a reputation is more subjective in nature and based on perceptions, which means that if in doubt, a person should always ‘err on the side of caution’.
This does not mean that you do not have the right to express your opinions or share posts and photos of a personal nature. What it does mean is that you should consider the potential conflict it could cause you professionally, especially if you are in a position or professional field that requires you to demonstrate strong ethical and/or moral values and characteristics. If you’re concerned about what you’ve posted from a personal point of view, try doing an Internet search and perusing the results. People are often surprised by the result and possibly alarmed as well. If your profession could be affected in any way, please consider adjusting your privacy settings. Facebook and Instagram probably contain the most personal information of all the social networking websites, although it is possible to be very stubborn on other websites like Twitter and LinkedIn.
A professional reputation
The reputation that a person develops in their career is easier to control as it involves the actions and behaviors displayed at work, along with the interactions they have with colleagues and clients. When a person first starts a new job, she usually does her best and demonstrates the best of herself and the talents she possesses. Over time, and as dictated by work clothes, a person will usually return to their normal behavior patterns. The reputation of a career is thus influenced by actions, work habits, forms of communication, work product, and other subjective factors including associations made with other employees at work. While reputation is often perceptual in nature and often related to a person’s credibility, it can be controlled by considering the nature of the job and professional expectations or code of conduct. It is also about aligning personal values with organizational values and being ethical in all forms of communication, transactions and activities.
You are always in control of your personal and professional reputation. You can decide that the way you present yourself personally and professionally is important at all times, or you are free to act however you want, as you are entitled to your personal ways of expression. However, if you are building your career and want to ensure that employers and potential employers see you in the best possible light, then you need to develop a proactive plan for managing your professional reputation. You can achieve this goal by considering the impact of what you post and share online, along with how you behave and act while at work. Your reputation is a reflection of who you are and what you stand for, and that can have a significant impact on your career and the number of new opportunities that come your way. If your career is important to you, pay attention to how you may be perceived as an employee and a potential new hire.