IT Interviews Exposed -- Tip #3

we're back with the third interview tip!

In the second edition of "Programming Interviews Exposed", we
talked about the need to "sanitize" your online profile. This
is even more true now, as recruiters make it a habit to search
for information about job candidates. They're looking for red
flags, clues that the person they're interviewing isn't who
they say they are or isn't a good fit for the company. That's
why you'll want to ensure that you use the right privacy
settings for your Facebook profile, that you remove potentially
offensive pictures, and so on.

But you can also do stuff online to improve your chances. One
of the easiest things you can do is participate in online
forums or Q&A sites like StackOverflow. For example, I recently
joined StackOverflow and answered some questions like this one:

Sample StackOverflow answer

Smart answers to questions that others have can go a long way
to convincing others that you're the real deal. (Of course, the
corollary applies: dumb answers -- or even worse, dumb questions --
will likely harm you.) Especially good are answers to questions
that rely on some specific expertise you've developed.

It's not something you can do overnight, of course. It takes
time to find and answer questions. So you'll want to start it
as soon as you can. And you'll want to use a name and picture
that clearly identifies who you are -- otherwise how will the
recruiters know it's you? (If you're a very private person,
this may not be something you want to do. At least, though,
you're probably not doing anything online to harm your reputation,
either.)

Anyhow, something to think about!