Polishing Your Professional Profile Online
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Do you disclose information in online chat rooms that you would not disclose face to face? If so, you are not alone. It is easy to quickly type in controversial opinions or even load pictures of questionable activity without thinking through the long term consequences.
Many college graduates are seeing the advantages of closing out certain social networking pages before beginning their job search. Information that was fun to share online during our college days is not always advantageous to share during our professional phase of life.
In today’s society, Big Brother is always watching online activity. In the case of the job seeker, big brother may just be the person you have the interview with.
Closing networking accounts may seem paranoid to many. You may think that the likelihood of a hiring manager being in your rugby chat room is unlikely. However, HR reports are beginning to reveal plenty of anecdotal evidence that recruiters are Googling candidates. Interns may even be tasked with logging into social networking sites to look for more information about candidates.
It is likely that we have all said or done things in our youth that we would rather employers not know about. For today’s younger generation that grew up using sites like Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace, this can be a concern as they transition into a professional phase of life.
At many colleges and universities, students are being advised to keep their online presence professional from day one. Even password protected sites are fair game – a recruiter can open a profile and enter your group just as easy as anyone else you meet online.
Some students may find out too late that they should have taking these warnings more seriously. A recent survey by AfterCollege.com revealed that just over 70% of college students are sticking to their old ways without regard for prospective employers gaining access to their online information.
The same survey included 90 employers. Twenty percent of these employers reported that they do, in fact, investigate potential hires by visiting social sites that are popular among college students. Six percent admitted to not hire a candidate based on what they found online.
According to a representative from the AfterCollege.com survey, students should be taking this new trend very seriously.
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