If you’re on the job hunt right now, it’s likely your name has been Googled at least a few times by employers eager to know more about you.

In fact, nearly half of employers use Google and other search engines to research candidates, according to a 2013 CareerBuilder study.

Hopefully, what they find doesn’t include a photo reel from that one wild night you had after your high school reunion, the saucy selfies you and the girls snapped at the beach, or any other defaming information that could give a questionable impression of your character. However, when googling you, employers want to find more than just a blank slate. They want to get to know the real you.

Based on research, from the University of Texas at Austin published in March 2014, employers seek the following characteristics when researching you online:

You’ve been sending out dozens of applications for weeks, but still have heard nothing.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty common. In fact, 75 percent of job seekers who applied to jobs didn’t hear back from employers, according to data from CareerBuilder’s 2013 survey.

Even so, you’ve been showing your resume to everyone in sight and bemoaning the agony of a job search to your friends. You may think someone should have offered you a job by now. But while your motivation is clearly there, your approach might be spoiling your job search.

Here are four tactics that will ensure your job search will fail miserably and what to do instead:

I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve received asking me to provide a reference for a former colleague. The colleague listed me as one of her professional references, but the phone call from the employer was the first I’d heard of it.

Calls like this catch me off guard, and I have to recall what it was like to work with that person — it may have been several years ago. I hesitate and fumble with my words for a few minutes, which no doubt leaves a poor impression on the hiring manager, on the other end of the line.

If my former colleague had let me know ahead of time, I could have been more prepared to give a first-class recommendation. Don’t make the same mistake with your references.

Let’s discuss the right way to ask for and manage your references, starting with these tips: 

It’s that time of year again — time to clean up, clear out, and start fresh. With springtime fast approaching, it’s an ideal time for job seekers to dust off their resumes and take a fresh approach to how they search for jobs.

While spring cleaning is in full-effect in our homes, it’s equally necessary for your job search. Consider this: spring graduations are just around the corner, meaning an onslaught of new job seekers, hungry for entry-level positions, will be hitting the market.

In an effort to set yourself apart from the competition, while in search of your dream job, here are four areas to consider giving a good cleanse this season:

During your long-term job search, taking on freelance projects is a great way to stay afloat as you work toward your career goals.

Not only does it pay the bills, but it helps you remain competitive in the job market, through keeping your skills sharp, helping you develop new skills, making connections and building your portfolio.

If you’ve decided freelancing should be your next career move, you may need some help getting started.

Here are some steps for becoming a successful freelancer and using your experience to land a full-time job:

For most job seekers the longer you search for a job the more financial stress you’re under. Not only that, but long employment gaps also raise red flags for hiring managers. So how do you take time to find the right job and stay afloat?

If you’ve been on a long job search and need a way to make money that doesn’t include the phrase “Do you want fries with that,” consider becoming a freelancer while you look.

Freelancing will do more than help you pay the bills during your job search. Here are five ways freelance work, during your job search, can actually help you land your dream job:

As a career counselor, it’s your job to keep your job seekers up to date on the hiring trends they need to know to land a job. 

To take advantage of the current job market, inform job seekers about these four important hiring trends:

Negotiating your salary can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you’re new to the job market. The good news – most managers are open to a little back and forth. The bad news – they have a lot more practice than most job seekers.

If you’re coming close to landing a job or you’re getting ready to negotiate your new salary, follow these 7 tips to give yourself the best chance of scoring the the salary you want:

What’s your spirit animal? If you were the size of a dime, how would you get out of a blender? Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?

Hiring managers can ask some pretty crazy interview questions, and, whether you like it or not, you need to answer them if you want the job. Answering them is a little more involved than saying the first thing you can think of. For the most part, hiring managers are trying to break through the polished answers you’ve prepared, to learn more about how you think on your feet.

While a number of these questions have seemingly “correct” answers, most of the time it’s the thought process that goes into them that hiring managers are actually evaluating. Here are a few strategies to implement when a hiring manager asks you whether or not you believe in bigfoot:

You already know, in order to land your dream job, you need to stand out in all aspects of the job search. Whether you’re looking to impress a hiring manager, connect with people in your industry, or share your knowledge with the world, a personal blog might be the difference between ending your job search, and getting your resume tossed in the “no” pile.

If you write your own blog — or you’re thinking about starting one — here are a few dos and don’ts to make blogging work for you in your job search: