Social Disaster — is Your Job Search Safe?

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” –  Bill Cosby

I was recently recruiting for an open position and, after numerous resumes and interviews, narrowed the search down to three candidates and then the final choice. The “winning” candidate had a very impressive resume and all of his references checked out. Then came the background check (which includes a fairly robust Internet search) and we discovered some disturbing news. The final candidate was a quite active political dissident (on the Internet, using blogs and comments). Now this might not cause alarm on its own, but his comments bordered on libelous and some statements were inches away from “overthrow the government”. Needless to say, we passed on this candidate.

What about you? Do you know what will show up in a robust Internet search on you? Better yet, do you know how your Internet persona is perceived by others (it doesn’t really matter what you think)? Beyond the basic test “would your mother would be upset?”, you should be aware of what lurks in your name and image on the Internet. Have you done a search lately? Are there people with the same or a similar name to yours that can be confused with you (and cause you grief)? Today’s post provides some tools and advice to help you manage your social footprint.

• Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle — This article was published in the New York Times and provides a good overview of the types of background checks that many companies now employ. The article reviews a new company (Social Intelligence) that specializes in scouring the Internet for everything and anything a perspective employee may have said, done or posted for the last seven years! This is an interesting read, with some examples of what they find. [Editor’s note: You may also want to read Preparing for and Handling Employment Background Checks.]

• How Blogging and Social Networking Can Impact Your Job Search – This article is by Alison Doyle and was posted on About.com. Another good read which will help you measure what you should (and should not) do on the Internet. The article includes some great advice (including how to set your privacy settings in Facebook and MySpace). There are embedded links to related articles, as well as suggested reading. While you are there, take a look at the other great job search advice and tools on the site.

• 6 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid While Job Seeking — This article, posted on Careerealism.com, provides a few guidelines on how to avoid mistakes (rather than trying to fix the almost unfixable). Some tips are related to your actual search (like leaving your profile open to others) while others involve what you should not post on the Internet. Of course this all extends to both, what you post on social sites AND what you include in job search sites. While you are on the site, take a look at some of the related articles.

• How to Check Your Internet Profile— There are several ways you can check your own profile on the Internet short of paying for a service to check for you.
  • How to Google Yourself Effectively and What to Do About It – Sounds easy, but this article covers not only how but what to do if you find bad stuff.
  • Google Alerts — Now that you’ve Googled yourself, what happens if something comes up tomorrow? Easy, setup a Google Alert which will notify you when/if something comes up.

Good luck in your search.

A Guest Post by CareerAlley

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.