Personal Branding Expert: Circumvent the Resume Mill With an Online Presence

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All job-seeking young professionals should have a strong online presence, otherwise they are going to be completely overlooked by recruiters, personal branding expert Dan Schawbel said.
 
“It’s really the only way to do it now,” Schawbel said. “What’s happening now is people are being judged based on how active you are online and on how many followers you have. When two professional resumes are similar, the difference is going to be who has the better online network.”
 
The 26-year-old speaks with some well-earned authority. He wrote the best-seller Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. He is also the founder of personalbrandingblog.com and publishes Personal Branding Magazine. BusinessWeek named him as one of the top 20 people entrepreneurs should follow.
 
“You can build visibility on the web and have more freedom, rather than going through the traditional channels of submitting a resume into a corporate bin that no one looks at anyway,” Schawbel said.
 
Online networking can work especially well for those people who are introverted, Schawbel said.
 
Many young professionals already have personal Facebook or Twitter accounts, but may be hesitant to open them up to potential employers.
 
“There’s really no hiding,” Schawbel said. “I would just clean up everything and use it more professionally.”
 
And for those who are already employed: As tempting as it is to put your employer on blast after a particularly bad day in a Facebook status rant, save it for a private phone call with a trusted friend, Schawbel advises.
 
“What you say impacts the corporate brand,” Schawbel said. “If you’re supportive of the company and they know it, you can reap the benefits.”
 
Schawbel certainly did. Three years ago, he was working for the Fortune 200 company EMC Corporation. His personal branding blog was just a hobby--something he was doing on the side to help other young professionals. His employers got wind of what he was doing and recruited him to work in their social media marketing division. They let him invent his own title and write his own job description.
 
“I got to be a vice president,” Schawbel said. “I moved straight up from an entry level worker.”
 
(Photo of Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert)
 
Read more from YPNation about the power of social media.