Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are very useful for staying connected with friends both on and off campus, but they can also be a hindrance during the job search process. Believe it or not, organizations actually seek to find personal information of potential employees on the internet.
Author Sylvia Landy, whose book Ditch the Flip-Flops: Ace Your Job Interview Fresh Out of College is available in the Career Center Resource Room, recommends cleaning out your closets before embarking on a job search. This means closely evaluating any personal information that may be floating out in cyberspace and eliminating those "skeletons" that may tarnish your professional image. Here are some tips for polishing your cyber-image:
-Pictures in online photo albums can be incriminating. Remove photographs depicting anything illegal, anything even remotely sexual, or any images from an evening of drunken revelry.
-Unfortunately, information about any serious relationships may affect your job search. Consider editing your "Relationship Status" and "Looking For" sections. Save any photos of you smooching your significant other for private albums.
-Information about organizations that imply extreme lifestyles or political and religious affiliations should be removed from your internet profiles. You wouldn't put this information on your resume, so don't have it available online.
-Your voicemail greeting is subject to scrutiny as well. Get rid of any music, rhyming, or quirky statements. Record a new greeting that is brief and professional. Be sure to state your first and last name clearly and ask the caller to leave their name and phone number.
-Ego-surf. Enter your name into any common search engines (google.com, yahoo.com, dogpile.com, etc.) What sort of information appears? Is this information that you would want a potential employer to find? If something unfortunate does appear, try contacting the manager of the website and ask them to remove the information. If the negative item is a matter of public record, be prepared to do some damage control during the interview process. Search your name monthly to see if anything new appears.
You may find some of these recommendations to be a bit strict. Maybe you really don't want to delete the hilarious video from that party last weekend or you want to keep those years of blog entries. It may be painful, but try to keep your online information as squeaky clean as possible. Professional standards can be a bit outdated so it is best to play it safe and project a positive, professional image in every facet of your life.
Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/jobs/career/11398441.html
Landy, Sylvia. Ditch the Flip Flops: Ace Your Job Interview Fresh Out of College. Winnettka, IL: Keystone Three LLC, 2007.
