The following is a guest post from Peggy McKee courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap.

Your personal brand is nothing more (or less) than the image you project to others. It’s the whole (although abbreviated) picture of who you are and what you do–professionally. Online, it’s the sum of the parts. A large (maybe the whole) purpose of creating and maintaining an online brand is so that people who don’t know you (employers or potential clients/business partners) can find you, evaluate whether they want to meet you/work with you/recommend you. And that’s why it’s a big deal.

Your online brand is your first impression for people, job leads, or opportunities that might miss you if it’s not everything it could be. And, it’s definitely a piece of the puzzle for those who have met you in person and are looking to find out more. If you don’t think a hiring manager is going to look around online for more information about you before they make the offer, you are seriously misguided. So, what can you do to make sure your online brand identity is a strong recommendation for why someone should hire you?

1. Use every opportunity to establish a presence.

Although LinkedIn is my favorite online networking site, you should also incorporate Twitter, Facebook, Visual CV, and others. (One article says that you should “cybersquat as much social real estate as possible” to both strengthen your online brand and to combat social identity theft.) Make absolutely certain that every site provides a professional profile with dynamic words that describe who you are and what you do.

2. Make sure your photos are professional and consistent.

Attach a head-and-shoulders professional photo to each of your online pages. Having the same photo on all sites will help those who don’t know you recognize you. And please remove the too-personal photos of you with your friends at the party, or you at your political function, or anything else that could cause controversy. If you’re trying to land a job in medical or health care sales, you want potential employers to concentrate on your job skills without anything else getting in the way.

3. Participate.

Join groups and discussions, and try to share something of value to help others. Always keep your brand in mind as you contribute your thoughts and ideas. (It’s not hiding the “real you,” it’s simply keeping a public face that’s separate from your private one. Or, to put it another way…there’s a lot you wouldn’t say in front of your grandmother that you wouldn’t hesitate to say in front of your friends. Think of cyberspace as your grandmother. ) You decide how you want people to see you, and develop a consistent theme. It presents a unified, clear, positive image to the rest of the world that will pay off for you in your career.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

The following is a guest post from Jessica Holbrook Hernandez courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap.

A frequent theme of our blogs is limiting your resume to information that’s truly relevant to the position for which you’re applying.  You should feel free to leave off your high school job serving fast food or your college job working retail if you have years of subsequent work experience.  Also, listing only the achievements from your previous jobs can actually omit an important component of your career: your personal story.

Many of the clients I work with put themselves through graduate programs years into their career, while they were working full-time.  This is no small feat!  If you know anyone who has gone to grad school while they were working, you probably remember that period of their life as one of high stress and limited play.  However, making this career move almost always pays off with greater career opportunities and a higher salary.  It requires (and displays) real ambition to return to school when you already have a job.  So, if you’re one of the many people who has done this, one way to highlight it on your resume is to stick it right into the job summary:

Manager, ABC Company

Managed a department of 20 employees.  Directed all sales and billing.  Earned MBA while working full-time.

Many job seekers have also performed years of consulting services on the side.  Some do not include this on their resume, as they think of it as irrelevant additional information.  Not so!  If you have the business wherewithal to handle some amount of self-employment in addition to your regular job, that’s a valuable skill.  And even if you don’t end up getting the job for which you applied, you may just gain yourself a new client!

Another way to spark great interview conversation is by including any education or work relevant to your personal passions or hobbies.  I’m not suggesting that you put “likes to play golf” on your resume, but if you’re good enough to have won numerous tournaments, that shows dedication and skill that most people don’t possess.  I recently worked with a woman who had taken more than 30 classes at her local culinary school over the years.  I jokingly asked her if her retirement plan was to open a restaurant, and guess what … it was!

Ninety-nine percent of your resume’s content should relate directly to the position you’re targeting.  However, don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a few sentences that differentiate you from the other candidates in the pile.  After all, hiring managers want to work with interesting people!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Hi everyone,

Over the past few days I’ve had a series of comments (left on a variety of posts) which have contained offensive material of one form or another. And while I don’t want to get into an argument about censorship or free speech (or the specifics of these comments), I do want to strive to keep this site as family-friendly as possible.

And while I welcome all forms of comments, questions, and opinions which foster further debate and discussion, I’m going to implement stronger moderation policies starting today to ensure that no one is offended.

This means that comments which include any of the following material will not be posted:

• Hate speech (of any form)
• Threats or harassment
• Excessive “bad language”
• Product Solicitations
• Material Under Copyright (unless you own the copyright)
• All forms of spam

Obviously, I reserve the right to modify the rules any time. But rest assured, if you stay within the spirit of the list, you won’t have a problem.

Thanks for understanding,

~ Trevor

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that we are back online after a period of server instability.

You may have noticed that we were periodically down at times over the last few days. It appears that our server was having some issues but we have it all sorted out now.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the situation over the next little while, but everything should now be back to normal (fingers crossed).

Thanks for your patience,

Trevor