How are you viewed?

What do you see? Young Lady or Old Lady?

There is a tight line to walk when it comes to managing your career and personal life. But it is very important to keep them in line with your life goals and reputation. In life our reputation is sometimes the only tool you that makes the difference between success and failure. Recently a friend of mine who has been actively interviewing for a job wondered why he would be denied for a position that he was qualified for and one that he felt, he nailed the interview.   I wondered that myself because he is a very intelligent and a likable individual. Until one it dawned on me as I was looking through his media sites. It was clear from these sites that although he was very intelligent and would perform well at the job his media sites did not reflect a man with high standing character. I called him immediately and gave him the following advice:

1) Start by researching your on-line reputation. Enter your name into search engines to see what employers might find. If you have a profile on a social-networking site, such as facebook or Myspace, be sure to remove any inappropriate photos or comments.

2) Invest time in networking: make sure that you are spoken of highly. Remember you’ll never know who you might impress and always remember to never offend anyone, you never know when you name might come back around, the business world is very small.

3) Make sure your profiles on career-related networking sites, such as Linkedin, ExecuNet and Plaxo are professional and current.

Always remember, there is a reputation placed on everyone. Make sure you manage yours.