High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Relax, Showing Up, and Boosting Your Cred

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• Relax! You'll Be More Productive: "[T]he energy employees bring to their jobs is far more important in terms of the value of their work than is the number of hours they work. By managing energy more skillfully, it’s possible to get more done, in less time, more sustainably."


• 10 Strategies for Boosting Your Online Cred: "[E]mployers are researching you online during their review process. What will they discover? You can play a significant role in creating the right first impression online if you take a proactive approach."


• The First Secret of Success is Showing Up: "But never forget that chance plays a role in finding opportunities ... It's important to be in the right place, preferably at the right time. And it's impossible to get started without first showing up."


• 20 Reasons Gen-Y Should Not Work Free: "Many employers don’t give internships any credence at all when reviewing your resumes. They figure, 'she worked for free; this job doesn’t tell me whether she was good enough to be hired'."


• These 5 Workplace Habits Are Making You Look Amateur: "When you exhibit a professional image, you increase your own confidence while simultaneously boosting the confidence others have in you and your capabilities. It's a win-win." 

Does Your Online Reputation Really Matter in the Job Search?

At a recent conference for career services professionals, there was a presentation by Joshua Waldman, an author and social media expert. In his presentation, he stated that 95% of hiring managers use LinkedIn to find candidates and 80% of employers admit to looking up candidates on LinkedIn before calling them for an interview. Additionally, they say that 50% of candidates are rejected because of something negative the hiring managers find online. It seems from the evidence that the answer to the title question is a resounding YES!

Your online reputation has become critical to your job search in today's market. Having a LinkedIn profile is no longer an option - it is a requirement and an expectation. However, your online reputation goes much deeper than just creating a bare bones LinkedIn profile. Here are some additional areas for you to consider.

• Conduct a Google search on your name and see what comes up, you might be unpleasantly surprised. If you share a name with a controversial character or a popular celebrity, your presence may be harder to find. Be sure to include your LinkedIn link on your resume so HR can find you.

• Clean up your Facebook presence - both on your page and on your friends' pages. Evaluate pictures of yourself to ensure there is nothing inappropriate. If you would not want your Grandma to see it, chances are your potential employer won't like it either!

• Evaluate your Twitter and Facebook accounts for posts on controversial topics such as religion and politics. Don't get screened out of the job because you and the hiring manager don't agree on which political party to support. You would not discuss your religion in the work place, you probably should not talk about it online either. 

• Ensure your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete. Not having your LinkedIn profile 100% complete, with a professional photograph, is like putting on your best interview suit with old ratty tennis shoes. Put your best foot forward in your online reputation by optimizing the tools LinkedIn offers to you.