Are you a new nurse or a nurse returning to the workforce after taking time off for whatever reason?
Do you think starting your nursing job search begins with getting online and filling out applications?
Or you don’t even know where to start?
Well, you may be shocked to learn that filling out applications on job boards and perfecting your paper resume is not what you should be doing first, if at all.
Let me explain…
The most important thing you should do before anything else is clean up your online presence.
Why you ask?
Because the first thing a perspective employer or a nurse recruiter is going to do is look you up online by typing your name into a search engine. Doesn’t matter if it’s Google, Bing, Yahoo or Safari, they want to know what your online presence is.
According to an article on Mashable called “What Employers Look For In Your Online Profile” 96% of recruiters said they look for candidates online, first on LinkedIn, with Facebook and Twitter close behind.
And if you don’t think this is happening in healthcare let me just say from my own experience, I have been contacted by 3 nurse recruiters this year so far, pitching job offers. To bad I’m not in the job market but just by having an online presence has made it easy for them to connect with me.
Go ahead and try it, type your name into Google and see what comes up? Are there pictures of you at that party you went to that weren’t meant to be shared but someone posted them on Facebook for all the world to see?
If you don’t like what you see clean it up.
In Facebook you can un- tag yourself in photos you don’t want published and you can set privacy settings and create lists so that when you do share photos you’re sharing to only those people in your list.
For me, one of my lists consists of close friends and family members so when I post pictures of my grand-kids only close friends and family see them, no one else because I also have business friends on Facebook and I don’t want to share personal stuff with them. There on their own list.
If you don’t know how to do this go into Facebook help section, they have plenty of tutorials that can walk you through how to do this. Make visible only what you want the public to see.
How about Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, are you socializing or ranting and raving on these sites?
Creating your own magnetic personal brand online will be the single most important thing you do for your nursing career. Get this right and you will be able to go after any nursing job you want and get it.
In today job market, filling out an application and hoping for a call will not be enough to land that alternative nursing job you really want. If that’s all your doing, you’re missing out and it’s probably the reason why you can’t find a nursing job.
Filling out applications is a quarter of what you should be doing, instead start networking online in these social media sites I mentioned above.
People are getting their jobs through networking because the best jobs are not listed anywhere, there found by knowing someone in the company, organization or facility.
This is nothing new, but with social media it has made the process so much easier. A recruiter can find you just by typing in your job skills and for you, the job seeker, this is your opportunity to get in front of and connect with those who do the hiring. That’s where you want to be, not on a faceless piece of paper (resume) Companies want to see you, read what you have to say, and get a feel for how you interact with others.
In conclusion, clean up your online presence first, then start creating an online persona that gets you noticed and gives you an edge on the fierce competition that’s taking place in the world of nursing today.
Tina