Keeping the online profile updated attracts the employers Kailash Shahani in interview with Rediff

Rediff How far it is necessary to complete the profile? Kailash Shahani, Managing Director of Morpheus Human Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Expresses "Candidates who fail to put complete profiles indicate to a hiring manager that the candidate didn't care enough to finish it," he says. Kailash Shahani also added "Candidates should talk about freelance, contract or part-time work they might be doing, and explain the types of job opportunities you're seeking.Rediff Grammatical mistakes turns off the employers is it right? Kailash Shahani - Remember, employers check outthe candidate's social networking profiles to evaluatetheir communication skills. Nothing screams poor communication skills and sloppy work louder than bad grammar and incorrect spelling. Take a copy of any resume and I am sure there will be typos and grammatical errors. Some ofthese errors areunintentional andtake placeout of lack of proper education, while in otherinstances,it occurs also when the candidate outsources the contents of his profile externally. No matter how hard pressed the candidate is, it is important that he/she does a spell check on the contents before uploading or sharing his/her profile. It is equally important to proof read your profile for grammatical errors.

Rediff: How keywords in the profile help the employers?Kailash Shahani: It is important to use keywords in your profile. He says, "The world wide web is a vast resource sharing information. Candidates have to ensure that their social networking profiles are complete and rich with search-engine friendly keywords. Having search engine-friendly keywords that describe your skills and experience helps employers find you before they've posted a job ad." For example, in the case of a candidate from IT field, keywords would be programs he specialises in like C++, Java, Visual Basics, etc. For an art designer, keywords would be Photoshop, Corel Draw, Flash and the like. Keywords could also be your educational qualification, namely -- post graduation, masters, diploma, mechanical engineer, or other soft skills you specialise in, like negotiation skills, communication skills, etc. One of the best ways to find out keywords would be to check the requirements on the job profile listed on various websites. Find out if you have included them in your profile.It is important that you highlight these keywords in your profile. Keywords are essentially skills and achievements that will attract the employer's attention to your profile.

Rediff Why User-Specific URLS are important? Kailash Shahani: In the world of social networking, having anexclusive URL or domain nameis almost everything and adds a lot of importance to your profile."Facebook and LinkedIn let users create URLs for their profile pages that include their names. It makes your profiles more search engine-friendly. If a hiring manager types your name into a search engine, your Facebook or LinkedIn profile with your name in your URL will have higher prominence in search results. Also, list these URLs on your cover letters, resumes and business cards," says Kailash Shahani.For example, having a LinkedIn profile with the URL http://www.linkedin.com/in/kailash.shahani would be preferable over something like www.linkedin.com/beautifuldeath.The former would give the employer the impression that the candidate is serious about his career and has taken the time and effort to own a domain name. These are little things that you need to take care of while creating your social profile.Rediff: How Group Subscriptions affects the online profile?Kailash Shahani: Most job sites have access to niche user groups and communities pertaining to specific areas of interest and specialty. These groups could be great sources of information, to say the least.Candidates should join online groups in their area of expertise. The best groups to join have lots of active members. Groups

allow you to share and validate your expertise. Ask intriguing questions that will spark discussions with other like-minded Individuals, and add your two of your own. These groups are a great way of demonstrating who you are professionally. Since I am an HR professional, I subscribe to groups that are leading in the domain of recruitment and people management. If you are an advertising professional, you will subscribe to groups like agencyfaqs and exchange4media to name a few.So, find out what the leading groups in your area of interest are and subscribe to them. This will not only enable you with live feeds and provide you frequent updates on your area of interest and work, but at the same time, when an employer visits your profile, he/she will find a featured list of these pages and groups on your profile, thus adding to your chances of employability.Not convinced? Just try to visit an unknown person's profile on Facebook or LinkedIn. You will see a list of pages and communities that the user has subscribed to. Go back and see what your profile page looks like when visited by an external user. Find out and unsubscribe yourself from pages or groups that are irrelevant to your profile.

Rediff: Recruiters areveryparticular about integrity of information provided to them.Kailash Shahani: I would like to share an incident - Once, a candidate had approached us for the profile of an HR consultant. Her CV looked very impressive and we were looking forward to meet her in the interview round. However, when I asked her to explain more about her profile, she did not seem to understand my question and went on talking the next few

minutes on an altogether different subject. When I repeated the question to her, she confessed that she did not know much.We encounter similar situations on a daily basis. This is also because they are not honest about their skills and fear rejection and failure if they displayed their lack of skills. But the truth is, it will eventually be exposed when you face the panellists. There is absolutely getting away."Chances are, you may be hired for your honestyor be deprived for your dishonesty. The key is to be honest, anyway.