Your presence, online¶
Everyone can know about you, and you can help make sure they learn the right things.
When you’re applying for a job, at some point someone is going to look you up on the web - to verify something you’ve said, to learn more or just out of plain curiosity. The deeper you go into the process, the more deeply they will look.
What they find can help you, or hurt you.
Don’t let your online presence harm you¶
Let’s start with a very simple principle: there should be nothing online representing you that could be embarrassing if a prospective employer were to see it. What comes up if you search for yourself, on different search engines, and when you look past the first page of results?
How you conduct yourself¶
What people see online is what most of them will see first, and it’s what you will be judged by. There’s no reason to believe that someone will behave in a substantially different way in person from the way they do online.
Everyone is entitled to have passions and beliefs, even strong beliefs and opinions. There’s nothing wrong with being - for example - a political activist or a fanatical sports enthusiast, but how you conduct yourself in those pursuits really matters. You must do it politely, courteously, respectfully, kindly.
Unattractive associations¶
You should not be writing or participating in anything anywhere online that you would not like someone to associate with you. You don’t even have to be an active participant for it to matter: who you follow and like online says something about you too.
Stay away online from people, communities and discussions that:
voice expressions of racism, sexism or contempt for ethnicities, religions or cultures
embrace “edgy” opinions and positions, or seem to delight in adopting stances of controversy, or indulge in jokes that deliberately sail close to the wind
normalise discourtesy, disrespect or unkindness in their interactions
They are toxic, and even a passing association with them has the power to put an immediate end to a job application.
It’s also advisable not to become associated with certain prevalent online cultures, especially the “get rich quick” culture associated with dubious Internet technologies such as cryptocurrencies or NFTs, or the “tech bro” culture.
Unwelcome traces¶
Previous generations enjoyed a luxury: mistakes they made would generally soon be forgotten, and if they said or did something really stupid in public, it wasn’t going to be recorded forever. Your online history on the other hand will linger on for a very, very long time.
It means that whatever you’re doing now, something that you did years ago could still be problematic for you.
Consider deleting old posts and comments, if you’re not happy about them, or even entire accounts - but some things you will simply have to live with, and the best you will be able to do is hope that they are pushed out of the picture by a newer online presence that you take more care over.
Having a successful online presence¶
Much more interesting and rewarding is how to build a positive online presence that works for you.
Your website or weblog¶
If you have the time and energy to maintain it, a website of your own is a valuable thing. (Depending how you do it, you can be responsible for every aspect of it from design to deployment, and that in itself demonstrates a kind of technical engagement.) It can be an “about me” presence with real personality.
What do you want to put on it? First of all, be aware that it’s very easy to start something like that in a fit of enthusiasm, and then find that having written a few articles, it becomes harder and harder to maintain the momentum.
Interviewers are very used to looking up a candidate’s website, and finding that it contains a rush of articles that were all written within six weeks of each other, three years ago. (The other thing they often see is that the site is very new, and that every article shows every sign of having been created solely to be a portfolio while job-hunting.)
If you’re going to create your own website, start sooner rather than later, and think very carefully how you will sustain the effort to keep it up.
Writing how-to guides and tutorials¶
Guides can be very simple (“Create a network back-up system using a Raspberry Pi”), but even simple things will find an audience, and if you are able to write something up more clearly than anyone else has, it will be appreciated. It’s quite something to hit the front page of HackerNews in that way.
If what you have written catches an interviewer’s eye, expect to be asked about it - interviewers love seeing candidates’ public work like that.
But, there is a difficulty: coming up with articles of that kind is a very difficult effort to sustain, and doing it with authority and quality makes it harder still. There’s a good way to turn it round though, by choosing not to write from a position of authority.
Your learning and discovery¶
Instead, an excellent thing you can do (especially if you are in an early career stage) is use your website as a public diary of your learning and exploration.
It will be just as effective as writing guides for others, and you can even cover the same content, but now you are freer, to make it about your journey. You can go into your missteps and failures too. You’ll feel less need to write something new that hasn’t been written about before, because this time it’s about your perspective and experience.
For an interviewer, it demonstrates how you develop your skills and work on projects, and displays a kind of openness.
You’ll be able to write just the same article about the Raspberry Pi network back-up system, but it will be easier, and that means you are more likely to do more writing of this kind.
Open-source activity¶
If you take part in software projects, communities or initiatives, then to a certain extent that automatically creates a presence for you (your trail of activity on platforms such as Github, or the way your name will show up on events’ websites).
This can be of immense value, and it’s also easy to amplify - for example if you land a commit to a project, mention it on your website, or on social media.
LinkedIn¶
Everyone seems to be on LinkedIn. You might as well. You will occasionally see things of interest, and if you have met or encountered someone in the field that you’re interested in working in, it’s worthwhile to try to establish the connection. It can be a good way to ask someone a direct question if you don’t already have their email address.
But be realistic. You can’t expect anything of someone just because you’re connected on LinkedIn. You are very unlikely to be able to cultivate meaningful professional relationships on LinkedIn; that will generally happen elsewhere.
And be aware that there is a vast amount of rubbish on the platform too: appalling advice, horrible values and shallow “aspiration”. There’s a reason for the existence of the LinkedIn Lunatics group on Reddit.
If you have a LinkedIn account, it’s worth mentioning it on your CV and in job applications (many application forms ask, and many reviewers will have a look at your LinkedIn page). Make sure your LinkedIn page looks professional and matches your CV.
Your usernames¶
As with your email address, the username for your public online accounts needs to reflect who you want to be seen as. It’s a small detail, but pay attention to it.
Social media¶
Fewer people than ever now use Twitter, which once was a place for fairly casual conversation about software and the industry. It’s unlikely that you will obtain any benefit from investing effort into maintaining a presence there, or on FaceBook. You’ll find more software industry engagement on Mastodon and Bluesky, but it’s fragmented.