A few weeks ago, my little brother achieved a major milestone in his young life and became a College Graduate. (Note to all younger siblings: Yes, you will always be known as the “little” brother/sister, even when you are a fully-grown adult with a college degree. Even when you're a doctor with a mortgage, your older sibling will still remember your 18-month-old self sitting in a high chair, screaming like the dickens, and coated head to toe with pureed peas.)
Like many of you—whether you’re a career-minded new grad or a high school student just looking for some summer cash—my little brother has been looking for a job. And also like many of you, my little brother kinda forgot that most potential employers—from restaurants to summer camps—would be background-checking him. On The Internet. A fact which is not a big deal... unless, like my brother, your Facebook profile picture is this:
Tell me, Sparklers: Would you want this man to operate your Xerox machine? Serve your dinner? Teach archery to your children?!
That's what I thought. So if you're looking for a job—summer or otherwise—read on to make sure you haven’t committed any reputation-ruining online offenses that render you unemployable. Starting with:
Incriminating Images
We’re not denying the awesomeness of that photo from your birthday party—you know, the one where you’re partially submerged in a vat of Jell-O and surrounded by a bunch of people who seem to have misplaced their pants—but you should probably get it off the front page of Facebook before you try to work at a summer camp.
Colorful Comments
Unless you want the hiring manager at Applebees to be scoping those, er, interesting wall-to-wall convos with your bestie, set your profile to private when you’re looking for work. (Also, it should go without saying that people who troll on blogs, forums, or discussion boards pretty much deserve whatever comeuppance they get… but starting flame wars using your real name is a special kind of dumb. Don't do it.)
Prickly Prose
Keeping a blog is a great way to express yourself, practice your writing skills, and make your voice heard… but if you’re writing non-anonymously, beware what you post. That 1,000-word profanity-laced rant about how your principal looks (and smells!) like a dung beetle might be cathartic, but it also makes you look like a nutcase. Nobody wants to hire a nutcase.
Unless you’re looking for work at Johnny Rockets, in which case lunacy is a requirement.
Are you sanitizing your online persona for a job search? What’s the most embarrassing thing on your profile? Share in the comments! We promise we won’t tell.
By: kat_rosenfield
Tags: facebook
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