Your Cyber Life and Your Employment

Q. Can your cyber life affect your job life?

A. IT DEFINITELY CAN!! According to Monster.com "It's not just what you say that can be held against you when you're looking for a job. It's also what you post on MySpace, write in your blog and broadcast on YouTube."

   Just take a moment and search your full name on google. Besides getting your Facebook profile as a result, you will also likely get you Google+ Account, your YouTube Channel, your blog, etc. (assuming you are on these different social media).This is an important thing to note because when we research a company we want to work for, they also research us! 

   For example, a person got a job as a teacher and one day she posted on her Facebook account "Got a new job. I can't stand children though". The following day when she came in for work, she was given a pink slip and bye-bye Blabbermouth.

Guys, we have to be so careful how we portray ourselves online because our cyber personalities are being critiqued  in real life. Your language, the post you publish, the pictures you upload, these are all available  to employers and can be a defining factor in whether we get the job or not.

So here are some tips, to spruce up your online reputation:

1. Take the initiative- Ask your friend to google you and tell you if there is anything you should be aware of (inappropriate blog post, embarrassing picture, etc.)

2. Clean up your social media profiles- Make sure that your statuses and posts can't be interpreted as derogatory or vulgar (basically edit/remove anything that gives a bad impression of you).

3. Build a strong cyber persona- share uplifting and positive content, write a blog expressing your opinions on rising issues, upload pictures of you doing volunteer work. These are ways you can create an impressive online image and employers will be more inclined to put you on the payroll.

We live a huge part of our lives online, so it is natural for us to post personal stuff at times. It may also seem indiscreet of employers to be prying into our social media life but it is now a reality. 

So be safe, think twice of what you post and make sure the image you portray online is a good one.