This Halloween, don’t be haunted by your social networking!

Just last week a student told me her prospective employer “googled” her.  Turns out, they had also searched her on Facebook.  Equally as interesting, I’ve noticed that some of my Facebook friends make derogatory comments about their work, job, or employer on their walls. 

It seems as though social networking is a lot like playing hide-and-seek with a 4-year-old . . . . if they have their face covered, they think you can’t see them.  Some people make the same mistake with the internet.  Because you aren’t face-to-face with the reader, you feel more comfortable in divulging large amounts of personal information. 

People have been known to have their homes robbed because they made a comment on a web page that they would be out of town for the weekend.  Don’t rob yourself of a great job opportunity by making the mistake of placing disparaging information on your social networking page.

PREVENT IT:

So to the extent you can control it, don’t put anything out there that will haunt you later. 

FIX IT:

Edit the web page or ask the owner/webmaster to correct the page.

DEFEND IT:

If you can’t prevent it or fix it, be prepared to defend it in a job interview!

You simply can’t be too careful about what you put on the wonderful world wide web!  It can come back to “haunt” you later.