Here in New England, the snow has a memory. You can still see tracks in the yard and open space, days after roads have been plowed and driveways have been cleared. You can tell where people and animals have been — and you can often see what they’ve done and left behind.

As temperatures rise or new storm fronts blow in, snow tracks disappear. But all of us leave a footprint that has a much longer life span online — in fact, many people continue to have a digital presence online after they die.  From casual conversations with friends, to comments on message boards, political donations and charity 5K runs, your activities will often show up in Google search results of your name.

Why does this matter? Conducting a Google search on candidates has become a standard practice: in fact, 90% of executive recruiters say they conduct online research of potential candidates (ExecuNet). Up to 70% of employers who use LinkedIn say they’ve chosen not to hire based on what they’ve found out about a candidate online, but only 27% give people the opportunity to redress any negative search results that are found.

If you are currently looking for a job, what people find in a Google search of your name matters. If search results for your name yield positive results that demonstrate your skills, interests, and experience, employers say it can help you get hired. If your search results include racy pictures, derogatory comments, or potentially illegal activities — you can potentially find yourself in the “reject pile.”

Here are five strategies you can use to protect your own online reputation:

1. Find out who you share your name with and share information accordingly.

Do you share your name with a few other people? If yes, consider including your middle name in your profile — or another variation of your name that you use.

For example, if your name is “Dave Matthews” and you are a CPA — you might want to be “David [middle name] Matthews, CPA” in any professional profiles posted online.

If you share your name with someone who’s been in legal trouble or in the court system, know why they are in the news — and tell potential employers who interview you “it wasn’t me.”

2. Know the results of a Google search on your name — and help people find your professional information.

Ever notice how ads on Google appear to be linked to your interests? It’s no coincidence. The ads that are returned to you are based on your own interests based on prior search results. (You can edit or remove your preferences here.)

Just as the ads you see are based on your interests and search patterns, you’ll receive search results generated from past clicks and your location. This means that what you see when you Google your name isn’t the same as what an employer sees — or what your friends across the country see.

Here’s a good general rule of thumb for having a professional presence on Google:  At least 1 of the top 5 search results for your name should relate to your professional interests. If you create and maintain a strong LinkedIn profile, this alone will help you significantly — as LinkedIn has high visibility in search results.

3. Keep your Facebook profile clean — and scan it for inappropriate content.

Facebook’s privacy policies are ever changing and hard to pin down. Even if you limit your content only to your friends, it can end being visible to others.

One way to make sure your content stays clear? Screen it with Secure.Me, a free tool that scans your Facebook profile. Secure.me can help protect you from viruses and give you advice on what to keep private. (It will also alert you to content that others could find questionable — so you can decide what to keep and what to discard.)

We hope you’ve found these tips to be helpful. Let us know if you use and recommend any others!

Sometimes the best way to catch the attention of a potential employer is to be straight-forward and honest — even if your skills and experience don’t line up perfectly with an employer’s preferences to hire for a position.

For a great example of how one job seeker used this technique, check out this piece in The Huffington Post, which provides screenshots of a cover letter that caused executives across Wall Street to lean forward, chuckle — and reach for their phones to schedule an interview. What led to all this attention?  A candid, direct approach.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter.

Here are 3 strategies this job seeker uses:

1. He acknowledges his understanding of the culture in which hiring takes place and is direct about saying that he’s a long shot for the job…

Why this works: Many Wall Street banks recruit at a small number of schools to select a majority of their summer hires. By acknowledging the situation, he makes it clear that he understands how the hiring process often works.

2. He asks for the company to give him full attention and consideration.
I am aware it is highly unusual for undergraduates from average universities like [mine] to intern at [company] but nevertheless I was hoping you might make an exception.

Why this works: He’s polite and direct in asking for the reader’s time.

3. He doesn’t sugarcoat his experience.
I won’t waste your time inflating my credentials, throwing around exaggerated job titles…

Why this works: He shares that he has good grades and some past experience without repeating or exaggerating his resume. His direct approach plays to the type of field that he works in, as Wall Street bankers are famous for being blunt, working in fast-paced environments, and communicating with short, direct language.

Can this approach work for anyone in their job search? Probably not. Many organizations will likely shake their heads at a line such as [I am not] feeding you a line of crap about how my past experience and skill set align perfectly with…[the job].

That said, soften your tone and there are a few good strategies in this cover letter that can work for you — especially if you have gaps in your resume between positions, have taken time off to take care of family, children or yourself, and want to work in a new field or one you haven’t worked in recently.

Here are three lessons we can take away from this letter:

1. It’s okay to be direct about why you’re applying for a job. You don’t need to offer to work for next to nothing, but showing your raw enthusiasm to learn about a new field or career path is a positive way to show your potential fit for a job.

Action Strategy: Match the tone of your letter to the tone of the industry you wish to work in. If you want to work in a job that requires strict confidentiality, don’t gossip or be overly chatty. If you want to work in a sales role, it’s okay to use a persuasive tone.

2. It’s better to be friendly than arrogant. If you market yourself as a rock star who knows the job being offered inside out — despite not having any experience in the field — it can hurt you even if you get the job since you won’t have the skills and experience you need. Instead, present yourself as someone who has some of the requirements for the job, and show that you’ve thought through the skills you have — and what you hope to gain. Many employers hire for personality, aptitude, and attitude first, and then train you on what you need to know to get the job done.

Action Strategy: Create a simple outline that highlights 1-2 ways you fit the job description instead of providing long paragraphs that say you’ve already got the skills and experiences for the job.

You Seek

5+ years of experience in ____________
Full knowledge of FileMakerPro

I Offer

3 years of experience in ___, with training in ______
Extensive experience in database management using Access and the ability to learn FileMaker. (In my job at _______, I taught myself ___________.)

3. Use your cover letter to answer any hanging questions an employer may have about your resume.

Did you leave your job early because you got chicken pox in your 30′s? Take three years off to take care of an elderly parent or a small child? Take a job that was the wrong fit?

Action Strategy: Address gaps or trouble spots in employment in a direct and honest way. Don’t embellish the story. Simply say what happened in a neutral tone — example: My mother had lung cancer and I resigned my position to take care of her. I am no longer serving as her caretaker.

Try these three strategies and let us know how they work for you.

“Find a new (or better) job.” If this is your New Year’s resolution, you will be in good company with one out of four Americans who set goals at the start of the year.

But what’s the best way to keep your resolution? Especially given that a majority of individuals who make promises to themselves in the form of resolutions don’t keep them.

Here are three ways to help yours stick:

1. Get Ready

Create your own inner circle of trusted friends and supporters. Tell them three things:

a. What interests you
b. What you do best — skills and interests
c. How you plan to conduct a search

Then make the big ask: Now that I’ve shared this with you, will you hold me to it? Will you ask me regularly how it’s going and encourage me to keep it up?

Why this works: Peer pressure. It is harder to give up when you’ve said what you want to do out loud. In addition, people who know you are looking can keep an eye out for jobs that might fit you — and put in a referral or a good word on your behalf. (Did we mention that referrals are one of employers’ favorite ways to find new employees?)

2. Get Set

There’s no need to rush out to the 50 percent off Calendar sales to get better organized…use StartWire’s  free tools to:

a. Find and apply for jobs (check out our Express Apply features under Application Connect)
b. Track where you’ve applied (you may be able to receive auto updates on your application status)
C. Download an electronic record of your job search activity (StartWire keeps your data confidential but allows you to generate a report you can use to update others on your search. If you are receiving unemployment, you may be able to use this for your Work Search record.

3. Go!

Even if you applied for a job in November and are waiting to hear back, follow up! Following up and making a habit of applying for jobs as soon as you see them listed is a good way to stay visible for employers — especially if you’ve asked contacts inside a company to put in a good word for you.

As always, we’ll continue to give you tips that you can use for your job search in 2013.

Regardless of whether we hit the fiscal cliff or not, we will be back next week with tips you can use to protect yourself from economic slowdowns and unemployment.

Let’s make it a great year!

In honor of all those who’ve served our country and in recognition of Veteran’s Day, here’s a round-up of job search and career related resources specifically for veterans. We tip our hats to you in appreciation of your service:

1. Want to go to a recruiting event where everyone’s looking for you? Take a look at Hiring Our Heroes, a nationwide initiative to help veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment. Hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s network of 1600 state and local chambers and other strategic partners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors, Hiring Our Heroes has a goal of hosting 400 career fairs across the U.S. this year — all specifically designed for veterans.You can find a list of local job fairs here.
2. Need help with the process of applying for jobs and writing your resume? Check out Job-Hunt.org’s comprehensive Online Job Search Resources for Veterans from how to prepare a Civilian resume to apply for government jobs.
3. Want to work for the Federal Government? Don’t miss the Feds Hire Vets site, a one-stop list of resource for Federal veteran employment information.
4. Want to work with animals or art? Idealist.org has a list of resources and alternative career options in the non-profit sector.
5. Feel the need for a little retraining in order to plan your next career move? If you are a vet between the ages of 35 and 60, you may qualify for the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program, a program that will pay you $1564 a month to train for a new career field.
6. Whether you vote red or blue, you may want to check out Joining Forces, a White House based initiative launched in 2011 with a goal for American companies and organizations to hire over 100,000 vets. To date, over 125,000 people have been hired. Partnerships have been created with more than 2100 companies in the public and private sectors. Many companies, including Microsoft, Safeway, Sodexo, Orbitz Worldwide and USAA have committed to hiring a large number of employees.

That’s our short list of resources for vets. If you have others to recommend, please list them below — and let us know how we can help!

One of the most frequent reasons you may get ruled out of consideration for a job has nothing to do with your skills or experience. It also has nothing to do with how qualified you are for the position. It’s about how you market yourself.

We’ve talked about how the hiring process works on the other side of the corporate desk. Now it’s time to focus on another aspect of the U.S. job search — job seeker confidence.

The national unemployment rate went down from 8.3% to 8.1% in August, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the drop was not due to increased hiring — but rather to more discouraged workers dropping out of the job search process altogether.

While not an economist or a statistician, I have an alternate take on why monthly numbers for hiring were down: For most of us, July and August are by far the most popular months to sit by the beach, cook out, and take a vacation (paid or unpaid). Parents often schedule family time. Members on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. House and Senate traditionally take a five week recess — creating countless vacancies in parking garages across D.C. and a remarkably easy morning commute on the Washington beltway.

If you are looking for a job, it’s a similar situation to December: It can be a challenge to keep your job search mojo up when everyone around you is taking some time off! Especially given that many search committees may postpone or delay interviews or hiring decisions since “not everyone is in the office” or around to check references and sign-off on job offers. But don’t get discouraged! Typically, those who take off August return in full-force and a mission to hire in September.

At StartWire, we work hard to provide you with free time-saving tools that allow you to maximize your job search results while minimizing your effort. We only share job listings of opportunities that have been posted within the last two weeks — because who wants to apply for a job after all the interviews are finished? Our new ExpressApply feature speeds up the time it takes to apply for jobs. We provide you with an easy way to track your job applications and work search activity — and enable access to automatic updates on the status of your candidacy from over 7,000 companies across the U.S. To learn more about these features and how you can make them work for you, visit us at StartWire.

Now that the days are growing shorter, it’s a perfect time to dust off that resume and apply again — optimally, within seven days of a job posting since our research tells us that the early bird gets the job. So go ahead, what are you waiting for?

Good luck!

While big openings and companies hiring in volume make for good press, there are many great opportunities posted or available which get little or no airtime at all, even on corporate career sites. The number and frequency of hidden job opportunities is a topic of great debate. Today, we’re focusing on the back story of how these individual jobs get created. (This is the first post in a series of six designed to take you behind the scenes as employers advertise for positions and make hiring decisions.)

As we’ve mentioned before, searching for a job can be very much like looking for the right life partner: To create a sustainable long-term relationship, you both have to be open and willing to make a commitment to one another!

The first step in the hiring process at most organizations is deciding to hire: There must be a current opening, and a recognized need to fill the job. Just as companies don’t hire a recruiter unless they need to make enough hires to have a recruiter, there has to be enough work to do for the job to exist.

Here are some of the reasons employers create jobs:

1. To fill vacancies created by employees who leave for new opportunities or get promoted
2. They have enough work that they need to hire more people,
3. The organization is re-structuring and/or in growth mode to achieve new or aggressive company goals

The second step in the hiring process is nailing down the specifics of the job description.
What will the new hire do? Who will they report to? And what skills are most important?

The third step in the hiring process — what happens after you’ve applied and while you are waiting to hear back — is largely unknown to all but a select few inside the organization.

One of the biggest challenges in the hiring process is the chaos of the hiring process during the actual search. As Tom Brokaw once quipped in a commencement address to new college graduates,

Real life is junior high…filled with adolescent pettiness, pubescent rivalries, the insecurities of 13-year-olds and the false bravado of 14-year-olds.  Forty years from now, I guarantee it, you’ll still be making silly mistakes, you’ll have a temper tantrum, you’ll have your feelings hurt for some trivial slight, you’ll say something dumb and at least once a week you’ll wonder, “Will I ever grow up?”

Inside companies, it’s not uncommon for an employer to re-advertise a job weeks after it has been posted because they thought of additional “must-have” skills for candidates — after they’ve listed the position. It’s not unusual for employers to move a long-time employee into a job he isn’t trained for — simply to keep him on staff if his old job has been eliminated. Employers frequently extend their own hiring timelines — or downgrade their position requirements — when the money doesn’t come in as fast as they expected it to.

Bottom line: If you’re on the candidate side of the hiring equation, it can feel like it did in middle school when your date for the dance bailed on you…But it doesn’t have to feel that way.

Brokaw says you can counter the petty problems of the real world, if you are “always a grown-up” in your relationships with others. Next week, we’ll show you what employers look for, how to get noticed, and how to follow-up gracefully when you see signs of adolescence in your job search. Until then, share what’s feeling awkward to you in your job search: What makes you feel most in the dark when you apply for jobs?

There’s no getting around it: Applying for jobs can be a lonely and frustrating process. If you’ve ever experienced any of the following events, you are not alone:

1. You submit your job application and receive a perfunctory “don’t call us, we’ll call you” e-mail back.  You’re still waiting…

2. You get invited to interview. They tell you they will be making a decision next week. You’re still waiting…

3. You get asked for your references. Your references are called. You’re still waiting…

No matter how far you progress in the process — whether you’re asked for references or never even hear back on your application process — the silence of not hearing back from employers is difficult: It is ego-bruising, frustrating and most decidedly un-fun. In fact, StartWire was created to give you access to more information on your job application status where it’s available. We believe you have the right to know what’s happened to your application — throughout the job search process. Through our Application Connect program and sponsorship of the Candidate Experience Awards, we’re encouraging employers and hiring managers to treat job applicants like customers — not like the worst blind date they’ve ever had!

We’ve interviewed many companies who “get it” and who treat applicants like guests who deserve to be communicated with throughout the employment application process — from when you apply to when, and if, you are not selected. Smart companies, recruiters and hiring managers roll out the red carpet for every applicant — not just the ones who get the job. They recognize that even if they don’t have the right job for you now, they may need you later. They treat you as you wish to be treated, even if they don’t have the job for you now. Companies who are particularly good at this include Adidas, General Mills, Google, and Herman Miller.

Starting today, we’re kicking off a series designed to give you more than a glimpse on what happens behind the hiring curtain. Our goal is to demystify the process: From why it takes so long to get a job offer even when a company is ready to hire you to what it means when a job ad disappears and reappears with the same title, but a different job description.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be delving into specifics of what happens behind the curtain. Today, we begin with the job search equivalent of the dating aphorism, “sometimes the reason you don’t hear back has nothing to do with you — it’s all them!” Got a question? Please write a comment below or send us a private message through our Feedback channel.

It’s hard not to take it personally when you don’t hear back about a job, but often, there are a host of reasons you aren’t called that have nothing to do with you. From different perceptions on “what the ideal candidate should look like” inside an organization to changing corporate financial performance, goals, and even nepotism, hiring can be complicated.

We’ll delve into this, but as always — one of the best ways to ensure you stay in the game is to continue putting yourself out there — even when you haven’t heard back as you hoped. So even if you think a job offer is a virtual certainty, don’t be afraid to pursue more opportunities in the short term — having an abundance of options is rarely a bad thing! So get out there in the application pool, let us know what you’d like to know more about, and hold your head up high.

And the fifth habit of highly effective job seekers is (drumroll please)… they use StartWire. Naturally, we say this tongue-in-cheek, as StartWire hosted this series – but we also mean it: We designed StartWire to help you streamline your job search and get found.
Habits by nature are tough to form without structure – research shows that – on average – it takes anywhere from 21 days to 66 days for a habit to become routine. And – as we all know, it’s harder to form a habit without also having the support to make it easy to put that habit into place.
StartWire was designed and built from the ground up – with the intention of providing job seekers with the support they need to form good habits. Here’s a quick overview of how you can use StartWire’s free tools to get support in each of these areas:

Habit #1: Don’t Post & Pray
Apply to jobs that you are qualified for – and seek out a way to get referred or recommended for every job that you apply to. (Don’t apply for lots of jobs and then sit back and wait for the phone to ring.)

The StartWire fix:

Share your information on what you want to do and where you want to work, and StartWire will send you job leads by e-mail through StartWire’s Job Search Planner. And check out our tips on the best way to make sure employers read your resume.

Habit #2: Apply Early
To get to the front of the interviewing line, apply early– or as soon as you see a job opening. (In our study of 6,600 hires –50% of successful applicants applied within one week of the time the job was posted.)

The StartWire fix:

Apply to jobs listed on StartWire. All of the jobs we post on our site have been advertised within the past two weeks.
Habit #3: Get Referred
Your chances of getting hired for a job go up exponentially if you can get a referral in for the job. To get recommended, seek out connections inside the company – and make sure you ask for help privately.

The StartWire fix:

Connect your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to StartWire and you’ll see icons of friends and connections when you look at jobs. To request a referral from any of these connections, click on the “Get referral” tab inside StartWire. Then follow the links to send a confidential request for an introduction – we even pre-populate your request for assistance. Your invitation will be received – and you can all rest assured that no trace of your request will be posted on the “wall” of any social network. (Need to get a referral from a “friend you haven’t met yet?” Check out these tips.)

Habit #4: Get Found
You can get called to interview for a job even if you haven’t applied. Thousands of employers search for resumes with the right skills everyday.

The StartWire fix: Share your resume with StartWire and we will distribute it to employers on your behalf. To optimize your chance of success, follow these tips to help employers find you.

Habit #5: Let us know how we can help!

Do you have additional suggestions on tools you can use to organize your job search? Share your ideas today, we regularly upgrade StartWire to include user suggestions: startwire.uservoice.com

Put these 5 Habits to Work and let us know how they work for you! We look forward to celebrating your success…
Don’t have a StartWire account yet? Sign up now. It’s free and takes less than five minutes.

This week, we’re on tip #4 of our 5 Habits of Effective Job Seekers: They get found.

There’s a lot of talk right now about social media and how many employers use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to find and connect with job seekers. While social media is a great place to meet employers, it’s important not to neglect other places employers go to seek out great talent. And one of the places employers go to look is job boards that have resume databases. So today, we’re spotlighting job boards and the reason why so many companies still use them to find talent.

Why? When a company needs to hire an employee “right now,” they may not take the time to advertise widely. They may also be looking for a specific skill that isn’t easy to find.

And one of the best tried and true places to find those skills is a database of resumes. When you stop by a job board, you may search for jobs. But when employers login to job boards, they search for resumes. And when they find the resume they want, they follow up directly with the candidate.
They don’t have to jump through hoops, they just get in touch. Bottom line: Resume databases help employers make hires.

Want to get found this way? Yesterday we shared some basic tips for formatting your resume. Here are three additional things you can do to increase the likelihood of getting found.

1. Get out there.  Don’t just visit job boards; upload your resume. It takes less than five minutes — and you can’t get found otherwise. As my wise friend Anna says, “you can’t meet anybody if you don’t put yourself out there.” Or to look at it another way: The only way to win the lottery is to buy a ticket!Worried about privacy? Leave off your address — and maybe even the name of your current employer (instead: you can give a descriptor — e.g. Consumer packaging company with 250 employees.
2. Make sure you can be found in a search. Use the right keywords for your field in your resume and begin your resume with a summary that provides an overview of your experience. Here’s a five-minute trickyou can use to do this — just apply it for your field instead of a specific job.True story: In a past life I was a recruiter working inside a company. I hired a candidate on Friday who listed his resume on a Tuesday. I found him on Wednesday. Another recruiter contacted me about him on Thursday. Why? He had a unique, hard-to-find skill that employers search databases for all the time. He later called it, “the easiest job search I ever had.”
3. Set your watch and update your resume — at least every 30 days.When employers look at resumes, the ones that were submitted most recently come up first. (Generally, employers have the option to view resumes that have been submitted within 7 days, 30 days, and 30 – 90 days. Since they want to focus on candidates they know are still available for work, they tend to focus most only on the resumes submitted within the last week first — and then on the pile that’s come in over the last 30 days.Want to stay at the top of the search results? All you need to do is go in and change one word in your resume, then repost this. Keep track of your resumes, update your listings every 28 days or so — and your information will stay current so you can be found.

That’s all there is to it. Try it out, and let us know how this works for you!