LOOKING for a JOB - Step 2: Facebook Privacy, Join LinkedIN
June 12, 2013
If you are looking for a job, internship, residency, applying for graduate school,. . . clean up your Facebook profile immediately. If you want to save those photos of you drinking, hanging out with friends, Conga line dancing, etc. or photos of destination evenings, cats, or poodle pictures -- then change your privacy setting on every photo to Private.
This isn't just the advice of a mother or mentor, a recent article in Business Week came out after my post...so I added it here for further validation. The article says,"Yet despite all the advice and warnings to be cautious with social
media, job applicants continue to get burned by their online profiles."
Here is another quote, this time from the book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant. The quote is from Howard Lee, the former head of South China at Groupon and "one of a growing number of people who use social media to catch takers."
"Nowadays, I don't need to call in to a company to find out about someone's reputation. Everyone is incredibly connected. Once they make it past the technical rounds, I check their LinkedIn or Facebook. Sometimes we have mutual friends, or went to the same school, or the people on my team will have a link to them." Lee explains, "You can understand someone's reputation at a peer level pretty quickly."
Any photo that reveals less than professional behavior, "TMI" , too much skin, drinking, etc. has got to go, go, go. NOW. Immediately.
Edit your profile picture to an interesting appearance of a professional character. Consider that everything may be viewed by your potential employer whether you want them to or not.
Edit your personal information to represent a more professional identity with current information. Consider including your internship experience and volunteer work.
NEXT: Join LinkedIn. Use the free option. Don't spend one penny. Construct your professional profile. ADD your work experience, internship experience and volunteer work. Make every part time job or educational experience sound good. Even unrelated job experience shows responsibility. For example: A lifeguard job shows responsibility and reliability, etc.
Did you double check your spelling?
BTW -- Did you find a digital class yet?
If you don't have a job, take two classes.
Harriete Estel Berman
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