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Erin graduated from college in May 2008 and was surprised at the lack of resources for college students about what the transition into the "real world" is really like. In an effort to share her experience as a recent college graduate and create a resource for college students and recent grads, she created College Grad Lessons.

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What Does Your Social Networking Say to Employers?

Social networking is a great tool for meeting people in the same profession or city. With Twitter, I have managed to create a small network of people that use the same content management system that the web team I work on recently implemented. I’ve also developed a network of people that have similar blogging interests. Between Twitter, Linked In, blog networks and the many other social networking methods, you find people that are incredible resources and people that can learn from your experiences.

But what happens when I need to look for a new job or hope to find additional freelance work? The fact that I can develop a blog template for WordPress and understand how to use social networking effectively are desirable skills, but I do I really want to share my blog and Twitter page with prospective employers?

Personally I see plenty of benefits of sharing my social networking identity. I don’t see anything that I post being a turn off for employers, but who knows? My blog shares my grad school decision process, how I got my current job and so much more. I often tweet about things I’m working on at work, post questions about web development and occasionally reference going out for drinks. I’m careful not to complain too much or share unnecessary personal information, but I realize that one tweet or blog post could make the wrong impression.

Have you thought about what your social networking presence says to employers? What rules do you follow when posting things online?

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Finding a Job. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “What Does Your Social Networking Say to Employers?”

  1. Ashley Says:
    February 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    I’m careful to keep my facebook very clean, which isn’t hard since I don’t do anything. For a long time, I wouldn’t even allow pictures of me holding a glass of wine. But, I’m 25 now, so I’ve loosened up on that. My facebook is private anyway.

    As for my blog and twitter, I’m semi-anonymous, so I don’t intend for employers or grad schools to see it at all, but I blog as if one day it won’t be private, so I don’t write anything that would threaten my employment or school standing.

  2. Erin Says:
    March 2nd, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    Ashley - I agree that it’s best to keep blogs and social networking clean and positive in case it ever does become more public. In college I was very careful because I was involved in student government and now I work for the college. Facebook is the place I stay in touch with friends, so there is a little more information there. Twitter and my blog are more professional. They help me develop my career skills and meet people with similar career interests.