Googled myself, pride ensued

This is assignment served as a nice shot of nostalgia. Among the top results: news articles from my glorious high school football career (ahem, we won the Wisconsin state championship in 20006) and stats about my days racing motocross. Less importantly, was all the very personal information that surfaced as a result of my participation on blogs and social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Brazeen Careerist. Well, actually, this personal stuff is probably way more important but I would rather reminisce about gridiron successes and the pseudo-macho high school days that came with them.

Anyway, this wasn't the first time I've Googled myself so I knew what to expect. Having said that, I think it's important to constantly monitor what comes up about you in general search engine result lists. As a senior, managing my online identity and reputation has taken precedence over other things in my life like homework, projects and my job - I spend multiple hours a day on Facebook and tweeting random thoughts in order to amplify my presence online. Just kidding, kind of. I do, however, spend a decent amount of time updating my LinkedIn and making sure that my Facebook and Twitter accounts depict someone who is both professional and creative. I think its important to portray yourself accurately online. If you have a work hard, play hard mentality then you shouldn't hide it. If I was an employer, I would definitely appreciate that in a candidate.

To not have an online identity or to not care about what your online identity is puts you, in my opinion, at a severe disadvantage when applying for jobs. Many argue that having inappropriate content on the web will come back to haunt you. I would argue that now, more than ever, having some risky content might actually help you, especially if you're applying for jobs that require a certain degree of creativity. By now, everyone knows college kids party and that college kids do things that 30-year-old professionals won't do anymore. Keyword: anymore. It happens, they won't judge you too hard if it isn't excessive.

Demonstrating your personality through online activity that comes up after a simple Google search will compliment a polished, professional resume, which ultimately paints a nice picture for employers before they even meet you. (My name is a little different in that I go by DJ Nogalski but my resume says Donald John Nogalski. Nothing comes up when you search Donald.) Obviously there are many counter-arguments to the assertions I've just made, but for me personally I think I've developed some good strategies. Then again, the real test will be whether or not I actually land a job post-grad. For now, I'm just gonna stalk, tweet, update, blog and do whatever else online until something else comes along.