I thought best to begin this article by including the term “high-level executives” to underline, from the first line, that the vision as well as the experiences that I mean to reflect in this post are based on my knowledge and experience with this specific group of professionals. In fact, in other more junior levels of the labor market, the importance of one’s digital identity functions differently from how it does for those more senior positions. As a starting point, it’s important to keep in mind that the current generation of high-level executives that have established their careers in Spain, unlike the case in other countries, have not cultivated their careers with the Internet. This means that the large majority of this group have not used internet for professional reasons o they have done so in few occasions.
From my point of view as a headhunter, one’s professional digital identity usually plays a key role in the beginning most stages of the recruiting process. Without a doubt, Internet has become a very useful information channel for us. And more so in the initial investigation phase, in which once we’ve mapped potential candidates, we try to collect the maximum amount of information possible about them. The more positive or neutral information available online, higher are the chances of contacting that candidate when compared to one about which we have no information. Clearly not all information sources we use carry the same weight. Thus, for example, professional references we trust will always be more reliable and relevant (and sometimes sufficient) than all the information we might find about said individual online. As is often said “soft wax will take any impression” and the Internet says many things that are not the whole truth. However, this does not mean that one should not look over what’s said about him or her on the Internet, and although while it is true that in the five years that I’ve been in this profession no candidate has ever been discarded from a search for this reason, it is possible that this situation changes and the online reputation of a person become a “killer question”.
In what online spaces and to what end should a candidate be present to favor his or her “digital identity? After discarding firsthand for the case of high-level executives those spaces referred to as “social networks”, where we would never go looking, being present on professional networks such as LinkedIn and Xing could be useful. I say “could” because for this presence to be truly beneficial and not counterproductive, one must keep in mind the kind of professional information that we share (a overly detailed résumé might seem as if one is “actively looking”), take care that it’s up-to-date and above all have a clear idea of what we hope to gain from being there. From my own experience, my opinion is that for more senior professionals the only end sought on these networks should be professional networking. That is to say, expand one’s network of personal and professional contacts and not only turn no them for commercial motives. For those executives looking for a change, I recommend that they always begin more discreetly, for example through a headhunter. You know where to find me.