6 Ways to Build a Positive Online Resume

Today we’re talking about creating an online resume for college and future employment opportunities with Brenna Harwell, from DuMont Project, who partners with tech businesses to recruit the best talent, from Summer Interns to C-Level Executives and Henna Hundal who is a college student at Harvard University.

Why is a resume maybe not the most robust way of showing who you are?

So, especially for younger teenagers or younger adults coming out into the professional scene, a resume isn't really going to show that much. You have research opportunities and a retail job or an after school position, but that isn't going to tell a recruiter about what you are interested in or what your talents are or even what you eventually want to do. What I suggest is to go through social media and create an online resume; have a strong LinkedIn profile, a Facebook page that shows off your personality, a Twitter that shows off your interests, and if you have talents or projects, I suggest putting those on there as well. Make yourself searchable. –Brenna Harwell, DuMont Project

What should your resume be instead of too broad?

To the point about how narrow or how broad your resume should be, I'm not here to tell anyone to constrict their resume -- especially high school students -- to a few areas. I think it is important for people to get a feel of a developing interest from a resume in a particular field or fields. Instead of broadly diving into so many topics and dipping your toes, I think it's really great to see high school students or a young kid really diving into a particular area that they find interesting. In that way, we don't have to say stick to the sciences or stick to the arts, you can do a combination but find a really interesting niche and explore it fully. It shows thoughtfulness, authenticity, and an employer or college that you could be very valuable in that particular area. That you have a skill and strength that they could really utilize, that maybe no other student can offer. –Henna Hundal, Harvard Student

What are some of the ways that you are searching for people online as a college recruiter?

Right off the bat, we have a joking rule that "once you put something on the Internet, it never goes away." A lot of companies that I'm using really tap into that. For example, I rely on Entelo whenever I am looking for really great talent. If I search anyone that applies for a role and is in the last stage of the interview process, I can take a look at their personality and who they really are when they think no one is paying attention. Entelo will provide an aggregate of every online account and social media account that is connected to that person. I can go in and see what this person is tweeting about and sharing and talking about on all of these social media platforms. I use specific search tools and I can find them via their names and their past activities on their resume such as former city, employer, or college. –Brenna Harwell, DuMont Project

What are you doing now while you are in college to ensure that in two years when you graduate from Harvard, you can move into a great career?

 would say to first make sure that you create a wholesome and appropriate online presence. I don't want to be too harsh on young kids because we are the first generation facing this online world where everything is preserved for posterity and no other generation had to deal with that before. You could burn a letter or rip up an envelope, but everything we send can be screenshotted and saved. I want young people to think about the online persona that they are creating and make sure that it jives with their real world persona. –Henna Hundal, Harvard Student

‍Teenagers don't usually want their family to see their social media but it is a resource for them so if not a family member, maybe a friend or a teacher can take a look especially if you are about to submit a college application or internship application. Just let them do a once over and set everything that you can to private. –Brenna Harwell, DuMont Project

We always tell students, "Go search for yourself online." Find all of these other people who care less about your online image who are stealing your thunder and go buy your personal web domain, which is going to come up first. Start building an online resume for whatever you want to be known for.

And there are such easy tools for that. You can use Wix or SquareSpace and you don't have to know anything about coding or development, but you can start highlighting school projects or things that you have built with friends. It's worth it. –Brenna Harwell, DuMont Project

What are some ways that you see students positively creating their online presence?

One interesting thing that I'm finding is that young people are leading social media type movements so they get a "fix" and get their "social media dues" but they are doing it in a positive way and about an issue that they care about. –Henna Hundal, Harvard Student