Prepare to be Googled!

I love how some things in our society develop that once were not, and then become part of our everyday active experience and vernacular. For instance, Google, a giganterrific, if I may take a liberty, is a powerhouse company innovating all things Internet and technology related (responsible, in part, for powering this very blog site) has also become a verb (the linguistic term for the phenomenon I'm describing is called back-formation in case you wondered!).

It follows, then, that one can be, and very often is, Googled!

Depending on your use of public, Internet-based programs and social networks, you have an Internet foot print. It can be a professionally appropriate one or quite the opposite, and if you're in the market for a job, the former is what you want potential hiring managers and recruiters to have the most immediate access to.

You can make sure to present a positive, genuine and appropriate Internet presence either proactively or re-actively. Using both stances is the best approach. Here are some quick things you can do and consider to have your Internet presence displayed in a professional way:

1. Google Yourself: The best way to know what others might see is to find out yourself! Using the major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) type in the various versions of your name that you might use, check out the results, and do it often.

2. Create Fodder for the Search: Leveraging social media, professional Web sites and blogs with search engine optimization, is the quickest way to bring search results to the top, and push other results that may not be as appealing further down. Create social media pages or a simple Web site just for your career interests, and take to Twitter to tweet (another back-formation!) about your love for, experience with, and expertise or latest news in Mechanical Engineering when looking for a position in that industry, for instance.

3. Privatize Personal Accounts: On the Internet, private is never really private, so act accordingly, but some measures create more private circumstances. Check each social network for privacy settings and disclosures about what that means for what you post.

4. Be nice and say please: If there are images or other content that is posted with you or about you by other sources, you can contact those entities and ask that the information be removed or opt out.  That does not guarantee that the information in question won't be able to be accessed, but it may make it a little more difficult.

In sum, get ahead of the search engine game, and if it's too late, do the necessary catch up.