How to strengthen your online presence

If you're currently looking for a job, how strong is your online presence? Are you on LinkedIn? If so, is your profile current? Do you have a blog? Is your name attached to any Internet publications? Are you using Twitter? Have you created a website for yourself? Are you on PubMed? Is your CV online? Have you created a Google Profile? Do you use Facebook?

Now, I'm not suggesting that you should do all of these things. It's important to balance things to protect your privacy. After all, your patients may be searching for you on the Internet.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to strengthen your online presence, then consider this: I'm willing to accept well-written guest articles for my websites and I'll include your name and a short bio. After your article is published, you'll notice that if you perform a Google search on your name, the article you wrote will show up (generally on the first page of search results unless you have an extremely common name). To learn more about this opportunity to strengthen your online presence, contact me.

Establish and build your online presence

If you're seeking a career change into the business world of medicine, make sure to establish and build your online presence. Why? Because people will search your name in Google. One of the easiest ways to establish yourself online is by using social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. I'm not going to talk about Facebook because many people primarily use that for personal networking and not for professional purposes.

So, do you have a LinkedIn profile? You can customize your URL so that it's easy to remember. How about Twitter? Have you played around with that yet?

Of course, if you're really determined, then you can establish a blog and even a website that lists your bio. However, make sure you don't list too much personal information that you risk compromising your privacy.

If you care to connect, join me here:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/drjosephkim
http://twitter.com/DrJosephKim

How do you find non-clinical jobs?

How do you find a non-clinical job? Do you still look in the newspaper? Medical journals? I don't think you'll find many listed in JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine. So what's the best method?

Well, perhaps you landed on this site because you were looking for a non-clinical job. Do you depend on job boards to find non-clinical opportunities? How about LinkedIn? Are you looking for part-time work or a full-time career?

In today's world of buzzing information technology and connectivity, the best way to find a job is through a combination of social networking, recruiters, online job boards, and diligence. Forget about the newspapers or printed journals. Leverage networking sites like LinkedIn and meet as many qualified and competent recruiters as you can. Stay active in online communities and you may just find a job that meets your personal and professional needs.

Online job sites losing business to LinkedIn and Twitter?

BusinessWeek has a story about some different online job sites. You can guess who's on the list:

• Dice
• Monster
• CareerBuilder
• HotJobs
• TheLadders
• LinkedIn

What, no Twitter or Facebook? You'd be surprised to know that many people have been finding jobs on social networking sites over traditional job boards. "Twitter is immediate." That's why it's gaining such popularity among job hunters and executive recruiters.

The biggest threat to traditional job boards may come from LinkedIn. Think of LinkedIn as Facebook with a "professional bent." It's essentially a social networking site that has been evolving to compete against traditional job boards. As a result, people are building some incredibly strong networks that are opening up doors of opportunity in various different industries. I've met all sorts of interesting physician executives and have also had the opportunity to do some professional matchmaking. "The networking even 'pushes' candidates to employers who meet preset criteria... while some LinkedIn members may not want to hear froma recruiter, they'll often send a message along to someone else in their network."

So will Monster continue to stay at the top spot?

• The PROS for Monster are: strong brand awareness; deep resume database.
• The CONS are: expensive (for recruiters and companies, free for job seekers); too many unqualified applicants

Perhaps if Monster teams up and forms some type of strategic parternship with a strong social networking platform, they will dominate the online job space.

Medscape Physician Connect

I've been reading some very interesting discussions on Medscape Physician Connect. Unlike Sermo, this discussion board allows users to post topics and comments anonymously. I'm sure that Sermo will implement this type of feature shortly.

There are obviously pros and cons to posting comments anonymously. I'm actually quite surprised when I see people posting very personal comments and then leave their name, phone #, e-mail address, and other contact information. There are some very angry and bitter people on these discussion boards and I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to hand that type of information out to them. I've seen professionalism fly out the window on some of these discussion boards.

Back to the original subject: Medscape Physician Connect. Have you given it a try? Or would you rather stick with Sermo?

DocCheck Faces

Want to experience an international version of Sermo? Then check out DocCheck Faces. Meet doctors from all over the world (but mainly Europe) who have registered on this website.

Wait a minute - DocCheck isn't just for doctors! They have nurses, students, pharmaceutical professionals, sales representatives, and various other medical professionals listed on the site. Want to network with such individuals? Thinking about an international career? Then check it out! The best part is that it's a FREE service, so don't delay.