Being a Professional

How to be a better professional?

We all know that looks are everything, so I will not badger you all with how to have your hair cut or your suit pressed just right or your fingernails need to be just right. But there are other “things” you need to do to make yourself look more professional. Based on my experience and talking to my fellow unemployment bloggers, here are a couple of things to make you look more professional and desirable to employers.

E-Mail Addresses:

In this day & age we all need an e-mail address, however most of us have “cutsie” and fan favorite e-mail addresses. I know I have FredTheMan, as well as Expos4Evea, While both of them tend to get clogged up with junk/SPAM e-mail I think that those 2 addresses are not the best choices to represent myself to employers. With various sites offering free e-mail (Yahoo, G-Mail or Hotmail) as well as your internet service provider offering you more than 1 e-mail, it is easy to have a “Professional” address. But what is a “Professional Address”, you can’t go wrong with having your address like most companies do, first initial-last name or vice versa, I was fortunate to grab FredB. If that e-mail is taken, you can add numbers to make it unique.

Social Media:

While most of us have social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace just to name a few, we should remember that employers do look at that as a way to judge their future employees. While those sites offer privacy protection. Keep your post clean and positive. Future employers don’t need to read about your beer pong ability or you complaining about your sports team. Trust me, I do my share of complaining, after all I am a Washington Nationals fan. Don’t complain about former employers… that is a lesson I learned, I am sure that helped with my 365 days of unemployment.

Time:

Time is a key, weather you say you will be there at a certain time or e-mail a file by a certain day as well. Mapquest and plan your route to your interview, never trust your judgment of where your interview will be at. It never hurts to save the info (address, name, numbers) to your phone, and if you have a “Smart Phone” utilize the GPS on it to guide you to the interview. Always call if you’re going to be late, a courtesy call always a good professional thing to do.

Like the old saying “You Never Get A Second To Make A First Impression”… Just some food for thought as you get back in the workforce.