Time to fine tune your look, your resume, and your Facebook profile?

Photos from your sorority days may not fair
so well with potential employers.

In a world where just about everybody is on social media (seriously, my 86 year old grandma has a profile!), it’s no surprise that employers have started taking notice. Surveys reveal that as many as 70% of employers admit to having Googled potential employees before making a hiring decision. Have you ever Googled yourself? Just for fun, I did. Thankfully nothing much came up except that my Facebook profile exists (but is locked down tighter than the White House) and this blog. The rest of the results were auto-generated type websites for background checks and phone/address listings. Even if my profile did show up, I’m not sure just how an employer might take photos of my boys’ raucous antics or the ultrasound progression of my current pregnancy; I imagine it would be received with a light heart! Not everybody with a Facebook profile has such a squeaky clean social media history. Think back to how long you’ve had a Facebook account. Do you even remember? For me it was 2005, back when you actually had to be a student to join. Maybe your last 5 years since graduation have been professional and family-oriented, but have you looked back at the privacy settings of your posts from your rowdy college days? If it’s not something you’ve thought about before, you probably should. You should set those photos to “private” or better yet, save them to your computer and delete them altogether. Many professionals in the field of job searching would advise that your personal Facebook profile not include your real name (First and Middle name is suggested often, or another pseudonym you might have) so that only your close family and friends can find it.

Now that you’ve got your private life on lockdown to the public there’s something else you can do… get out there professionally! Employers expect to find SOMETHING when they go snooping on you. Give them something to find and make it count! Start a separate Facebook profile where you only make more professional posts related to your career field, new innovations, things that interest you (remember, professionally!). A few lighthearted and slightly off-topic posts are ok, but keep it appropriate. Make yourself known everywhere. Start a blog (much like this one) where you discuss

things weekly (at minimum) related to your career field or the field you are trying to break into. Keep it light but intelligent. Prove your interest and your knowledge. If you have a Twitter account post about topics related to the field. You can also follow other opinion leaders in your field and interact with them on their posts and topics. Retweet interesting articles, post your own, and get a plug in for the blog we were just talking about. Make sure that any professionally oriented information or post you make online is set to public so that employers can easily access it. Having your name out there in a positive way that lets employers know you are knowledgeable and could be a genuine asset to the company will reflect on you very favorably.

Having posts that reflect your level of knowledge and dedication to your career field can be a very
positive indicator for potential employers.

You’ve got the job, now what? Keep it at work. Employers often look down on having their workplace business all over your Facebook profile whether it is good OR bad. It’s never a good idea to air your dirty laundry on Facebook and especially not when it is about your work. If you are having trouble with an employer; go to your employer. If it is a coworker wreaking havoc on your professional life go through the appropriate channels, complain to your husband or wife at home, but absolutely don’t ever vent about it on any of your social media platforms. Check out this link for a few stories of how people lost their jobs for posting on Facebook. Some of them are pretty serious; some of them not so much. All of them just go to show how little (or a lot) it can take to lose your job when you post about work business on public platforms.

(It’s ok to laugh a little, too!)

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fired-2011-5?op=1

In the grand scheme of things nothing is ever truly private. Even on your personal pages you should consider the implications of your post if an employer every saw it. A friend of mine was denied the right to be a foster parent because of posts on her social media profiles from more than ten years ago (she had forgotten she even had a MySpace account, hasn’t everybody?). You can never really know who might share your information, even if they’re close to you. It’s imperative in the professional world to keep an air of professionalism in all areas of your online life. Is it really worth getting that complaint against your boss of your chest if it ultimately results in your untimely firing? Every action you make has an implication. Make it a positive one.