Searching for a job now, is not limited to certain career title, and not bounded by the country you live in or the language you speak. Nowadays, you can literally, search the world for a job. In the same situation, the employers are also searching the globe for job candidates. I totally agree that the online representation of employees helps to give a good impression. It also allow you to emphasis on the skills and experiences that can help market yourself. The competition out there started to be very difficult. Am I ready for that?!
I think that there should be a separation between our use of social media websites in terms of professional-wise and social-wise. I'm sort of person who can play a game on a Facebook, or like a page for a fashion designer or even writing something friendly on a friend's wall .. and I think all these things are not relevant to any kind of career I'm doing or willing to do. For me, Facebook is a social network that employers shouldn't be using for building a decision about a future employee. Unless the employer wants to know if a certain employee was using the social networks during work hours or not! However, there still sites and applications that help you clear up the electronic mess you have done before.
On the other hand, I would recommend using a "professional" website or network, like LinkedIN or ResearchGate, where the main goal from joining it is building a professional presence on the Internet. One can connect to work colleagues, classmates, or people met on a conference or a workshop. My colleagues can recommend me in doing certain kind of jobs based on real documented experiences, i. e., projects we have done together. Also Twitter, is a good option for employers to look at. It allows short posts a time, so it enforces you to think about what you are going to tweet. Moreover, it is a more general purpose social media means which can give the employer a good idea about the potential employees as well as following their up-t-date opinions (short opinions). It will not neither waste the time of an employer nor the employee.
To be honest, my own accounts on Facebook and Twitter are not ready at the moment to be viewed by any kind of employers. I used the first for family and friends contact means and I'm not using the second actively. Although I don't recommend that employers look for me on Facebook, and I'd prefer if they do the search on a more professional sites, I still need to polish my online presence to be more professional, may be by using privacy options to get more privacy and know who see what on my profile. Personally, I like the idea of making a new CV style, that you can upload a video about yourself, some artists upload cartoon video about themselves. A picture web page is another attractive idea for a CV, with some logos for the companies I worked for and the photos of me giving a seminar ... etc. I thought of something like using
Prezi for an idea presentation about me in a nut shell. This will be attractive, take small space and accessible by employers. Moreover, as a lecturer-to-be, it will be a good introduction about me to my students too. This can help me get some students who are willing to do some research in an area which I like or I already doing research in. This kind of information will be part of my online presence.
