Job Seeking 2008: A multidimensional career presence is key

To employers, your multidimensional career presence offers a window into your career activities both from your own perspective but also from the perspective of others who know you in a career-related context. This multidimensionality provides insights and reveals key characteristics that employers can’t know by looking at the information on your resume.

To visualize the concept, think about your career presence in terms of a blind date. The reason blind dates work is because your friends recommend dates they believe are a good match. They’re recommending your blind date not just because they know you’ll like the way your date looks, but also because they believe that your personality, style and demeanor are a good fit. They’re helping you get to know your date before you even meet!

The blind date concept holds true for your career as well. When employers are looking to hire top candidates, it’s very difficult to make an informed decision because all they know about you is what’s on your resume. There’s more to you as a professional than just the accomplishments on your resume. This is why your online career presence must be multidimensional—The best way to be matched with the right career opportunities is to help employers get to know you better. They’ll know you much better and be able to consider you for the right opportunities if they can see you as the people who know you do.

PeopleAhead helps users create a multidimensional career presence that is objective by moving away from the good vs. bad mentality. Let’s be honest, most reviewers only post glowing reviews and candidates can usually delete reviews they don’t like, so reviews aren’t really good or bad, they’re just good. Imagine you’re an employer reading glowing recommendations from every candidate you consider—it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s...lets say, exaggerated, so where’s the value?

We help members show potential employers the perspectives of their mentors, friends, colleagues and even former supervisors without asking what’s good or bad. The career presence of PeopleAhead members highlights their interest in helping others, their most evident competencies (all PeopleAhead competencies are good, but some are a higher or lower priority, depending on the requirements of the position) and talent for recognizing a good career match without sacrificing objectiveness. At the same time, our TrueMatch technology connects members with the right career opportunities from the right companies so that when they apply (members remain anonymous to employers until they apply for a TrueMatch opportunity) they’re sharing an objective multidimensional career presence, rather than just a resume.

Make your career presence multidimensional, your career will thank you.