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Don't Blow Your Cover
Over and over, I see job seekers under-estimating the reach of every-day technology and, consequently, sabotaging their own job search. The combination of e-mail, blogs, social media, and search engines can be very damaging to a successful job search.
Apply these guidelines to your use of other social media, too, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and others.
Keep Your Secrets to Yourself
For example, over the past few years, I've read very personal information about someone, openly shared online, that really made me cringe at the consequences:
- A job seeker
asked if the 15-year-old record of a failed drug test would be
uncovered by one of the reference checking services.
- Another job seeker asked if his sealed juvenile arrest record for DWI (10 years in the past) could surface to ruin his chances at a job.
In both cases, the person's name and e-mail address was published along with the question. Also in both cases, the answer to the question being asked was probably "no" - until the job seekers themselves made pubic announcements by asking their questions in a public forum! These 2 job seekers "outed" themselves.
Sharing Your Biggest Secret with Your Facebook Friends, LinkedIn Group Members, or Twitter Followers
Last month, a job seeker posted a tweet in which he complained that his previous manager fired him based on "trumped-up charges." So he announced to the world that (1) he had been fired from his last job and (2) that there were "charges" against him. Yikes!
Neither of those disclosures would make him appealing to another employer, regardless of the truthfulness of his statement.
A big red flag is flying over this job seeker for several reasons, not the least of which was that he disclosed this kind of information on Twitter for his followers to see and for the rest of the world to find via search engines.
If you must make rude, nasty, or inflammatory comments in social media, or share your biggest, baddest secret, don't do it with the same identity you us for your job search.
E-Mailing Your Biggest Secret!
E-mail often seems like an informal conversation among friends. It is most definitely NOT! Don't put your biggest secret (or fear) in writing in an e-mail, even to your best friend or favorite relative because:
- Messages
sent to large or public distribution lists are often very widely
distributed and may end up being archived on a Website where they
can be pulled into search engine databases and found later.
- A majority
of large employers routinely retain and scan all e-mail in the
company's e-mail system, looking for information and security
leaks.
- Employers
also monitor Internet and Web usage, so using a Web-based e-mail
system (like Yahoo or Hotmail, etc.) isn't protection against
snooping.
- Messages
get forwarded, and you have no control, or knowledge of, where
they may go after you hit that "Send" button.
- Messages are stored - by the e-mail software (cleaned your Sent Mail folder lately?) and, often, by the e-mail systems and Internet e-mail infrastructure as part of routine backups. Some organizations and systems archive messages for several years.
In the U.S., federal law supports an employer's right to view employee e-mail, particularly in financial services organizations where sharing information is very closely regulated. Your employer should have an e-mail and Internet "acceptable use" policy published, but, even if they don't have a policy, don't assume that you have any privacy. It is always safest to assume that someone else is viewing all of your Internet activities and e-mail messages at work.
Blogging Away Your Privacy!
Blogs are fun, informative, and often controversial. It's very tempting to post a comment on a blog, but you need to be aware that - even if it is a "private" blog - tens or hundreds, if not thousands of other visitors to that blog may view your comments.
However, it's not safe to assume that only people interested in the subject being blogged will see your comments because of our good friends, the search engines (see below).
Know that Search Engines Catalog Billions of Web Pages
It's their job! The last time I noticed Google's count of the Web pages included in their database (around 2010), the number was 8,058,044,651 - that's over 8 BILLION Web pages! The other search engines also claim to have indexed billions of Web pages.
Often, these pages include some fairly obscure information from obscure Websites, like:
- Comments
posted in social media or on blogs. Blogs and social media provide great search engine "food"
so search engine spiders visit them often.
- E-mail messages archived on Websites by "public" news groups and e-mail groups.
These days, what happens in Vegas, stays in Google, Bing, etc.
Google Yourself!
Recruiters and potential employers, as well as potential colleagues, creditors, etc., use Google 80% of the time or more, to see what's "out there" about you. See Job-Hunt's Defensive Googling article for more information.
Do your own Google search to see what will be found, and repeat that search periodically, even if you have always been very careful with e-mail and don't post to blogs. Someone else with the same, or a very similar name, may not be as cautious, and you could be assumed to be the person who made the faux pas or the damaging statements.
What Should You Do to Recover?
For content already pulled into the search engines -
- If
the content is on your own Facebook pages or on your own Website (or a part of a Website that you can
control), remove the page or the content yourself.
- If
the information is in Web page someone else controls, you can
request that they remove the content.
- Feed the search engines new positive content about you to push those secrets to the second or third page of a Google search result on your name. You can do this with social media - LinkedIn and Google+ in particular - and you can also establish profiles on sites like bx.businessweek.com, amazon.com, etc.
It may take several months for the changes, assuming that they are made, to percolate through all the search engine databases.
Damage control - If the content cannot be removed, prepare a "damage control" plan - something to tell potential employers about the message or the posting that will present it in the most benign light possible.
Identity crisis - If comments made by someone else look like they were made by you, be sure to make that an important component of your damage control plan.
To make comments and/or send e-mail "safely" -
- Establish
a private, throw away, e-mail address with Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
Never use your name in association with that e-mail address!
- Don't leave
your name attached to anything that may come back to haunt you.
Watch out for the "signature file" that your e-mail
software may automatically attach to the bottom of every message
you send. Or, your member "profile" linked to some blogs
or other group postings.
- Don't send personal e-mail from work or using a computer and/or Internet connection provided by your employer. The same applies to personal postings on blogs. You may be violating the organization's "acceptable use" policy (which can get you fired), and, in the U.S., you can have no assumption of privacy.
Technology can be our biggest friend, but it can be an enemy as well. As the old Hill Street Blues police sergeant used to tell the patrol officers at the start of every watch, "be careful out there!"
© Copyright, 1998 - 2013, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.
About the author...
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, NETability purchased Job-Hunt.org, which Susan has edited and published since. Susan also edits and publishes WorkCoachCafe.com. Follow Susan on Twitter at@jobhuntorg and on Google+.
[Originally published in the March 9, 2005, edition of Job-Hunt's free twice-a-month newsletter - the Online Job Search Guide.]
