Career Advice: Be Careful What You Publish on the Internet
For the past few years, I have been warning jobseekers to be careful about what they post to Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. This is because many professional recruiters and employers routinely scour social media sites and conduct Google searches on job applicants and to vet prospective new hires. There is nothing more likely to kill a job offer than a photo of a drunken job candidate holding a bottle of Jagermeister or one that depicts a candidate in lingerie or a compromising sexual position. Unfortunately, information posted to the Web has a tendency to exist into perpetuity whether you want it to or not! In other words, once it is published it may not be possible to remove or retrieve the offending material.
While the inability to erase one’s digital past was once mainly a problem of younger and college age persons, the growing use of social media by older individuals has catapulted the problem into the mainstream. Many older adults and celebrities involved in divorces, lawsuits and sensitive business transactions are increasingly finding it difficult to escape their digital past unscathed.
It is possible for those who are haunted by unflattering tags in Facebook photos or ill-advised tweets to “clean up” their reputations themselves. However, this can be an extremely labor intensive and anxiety ridden undertaking, which in many cases —due to the sheer volume of Facebook updates, tweets, Flickr photos and blog posts—might not be successful. This has resulted in the creation of a new type of Web specialists known as reputation managers who work at companies like Reputation.com and Metal Rabbit Media. These companies offer their clients’ services designed to expunge negative blog posts, tweets and photos, bury unfavorable Google search results and monitor clients’ “virtual image.”
Unlike individual users who manually try to remove incriminating information by themselves, reputation management companies actually write code or develop algorithms to expunge or reduce the impact of potentially damaging material. Not surprisingly, these services are not free and they typically cost $120 to $600 per year for the “average person.” Celebrities, politicians and corporate executives are usually charged $5,000 to $10,000 per month (fame is expensive so be careful what you wish for).
Obviously, unfortunate digital fiascos can easily be averted if you stop and think about the content before you post it. This bit of advice is extremely important for those who are actively involved in a job search. To that end, I highly recommend that active jobseekers routinely Google themselves to get a “digital snapshot “of the information about them on the Web. However, if you determine that “genie is already out of the bottle” (and you can’t force it back in by yourself) then it may be time to call in the professionals!
For more information on digital reputation management please read the post “Erasing the Digital Past.”
Until next time..
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (be careful out there)
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Losing a job is a BIG deal whether you were layed off, fired or right-sized out of it. Not only do you have to worry about health insurance, bills and paying rent or making a mortgage payment, you must also deal with a myriad of self esteem and emotional issues that frequently arise after losing a job. While there are many articles and books that describe how to functionally conduct a job search after being layed off, there are only a handful that discuss how to cope with the stress and negative emotions that frequently accompany job loss.
As the old adage goes, “We are human and we all make mistakes.” Tell that to a person who believes that they have made a terrible workplace mistake and it will do little to assuage their fears and anxiety about what may happen if the error is revealed. In these troubled financial times, nobody wants to give a boss or manager a reason to let them go. That said, you may want to consider your options the next time that you make a mistake at work.
The mere mention of office politics makes me want to cringe. This is probably because I have never been politically motivated nor have I ever taken advantage of a co-worker to advance my career. Those who know me will tell you that I am a tell-it-like-it is kind of guy. And, I simply refuse to play the game to get ahead. That is probably why I am blogger/science writer and not a vice president or CEO of some company. Nevertheless, for those of you who are ambitious and driven, you will need to learn to successfully manage workplace politics because--you don't--you may wind up like me (not that there is anything wrong with that)..jpg)
As we all know (or should by now) the face-to-face interview is the most important part of any job search. I and others have lectured and written exhaustively on appropriate interviewing behaviors and the requisite skills that must be developed to become a successful interviewee. However, it is important to point out that you are not the only person in the room during an interview—let’s not forget about the interviewer! To that end, little has been written about the types of interviewers that a job candidate may encounter during the face-to-face. As somebody once advised me, knowing your “enemy” can go a long way to insure success. 