Cleaning Up Social Media
With my professional life quickly approaching, I decided tonight that it's about time to go through my Facebook account and clean it up. We've heard about the dangers and pitfalls of social media since the onset of the program, but it honestly didn't bother me before. I don't have anything too incriminating on my page, and I've done a decent job at keeping most of my photos private (at least since I realized that was an option). I really thought everything was alright until I looked at my profile closely, at which point I realized I had some work to do.
I don't know how much truth there is in the warning that employers scan Facebook prior to offering a potential employee a job, but I'd rather not take my chances. Even if my profile is private, I didn't want to risk the chance of pictures from my sophomore year of college popping up somewhere unexpectedly. So that was step one. I put on my "professional" hat and eliminated as many questionable pictures from the public eye as possible. It broke my heart to get rid of some, but I have to be honest with myself -- Halloween photos from 2006 are no longer relevant.
Step two was to really take a look at my list of "friends" to recognize who had access to my information. I never realized that more than 1,000 people were linked to my profile, over half of whom I didn't recognize at first glance. So I'm currently in the process of de-friending the majority of acquaintances from over the years, and making sure the rest have limited access. I figure that the smaller I can make my social web, the better. I'll do just about anything to ensure that I get a job when this journey comes to an end!