Fact: "24% Employers in India check an applicant's Facebook profile while evaluating him/her, for a job or internship."
If you're not careful, everything you post on Facebook can be
seen by your current employer or a prospective employer. Inappropriate comments
and/or inappropriate photos can make you lose that dream job or internship
offer.
Given the fact that just about everyone does use Facebook, it's
smart to take the time to make sure that what you post is seen only by who you
want to see it, not by the world.
What Employers Shouldn't See on Facebook
- Don't post anything you wouldn't want your current employer or a prospective employer to see.
- Avoid any comments that could be interpreted as racist, sexist or discriminatory in any way.
- Remove or untag photos of you that show you in a bad light. If you prefer not to, then be sure to carefully manage your album privacy settings. These control which people can see which of your albums.
- ·Look at your wall. Remove comments from your friends that seem distasteful.
- Look at the apps on your profile. Does their purpose portray you well? There are more than a few apps that may not be the best ones to have on your page when you're looking to get a job.
- What groups are you a member of? If you belong to "It's 5 am, I'm drunk, and online" or any similar groups, you probably want to leave them.
How to Safeguard your Facebook Profile
- Set Your Profile to Private Mode. This is an automatic given.
Click on the arrow tab near “home” at the top of the page>scroll down
to privacy settings>control your default settings>switch from
“public” to “friends”—this will only allow the people you “friend” to view
your page. Or you can click on custom and specify your restrictions even
further—for example, you can type in University of Delhi so no one
affiliated with the school will be able to see your profile.
- Delete Useless Apps. Don’t think that simply putting your account
to private is enough. Many colleges have a way of getting around this. One
of the more popular options is making those interested go through a
Facebook app in order to ask questions or get more information. If you
read the fine print, terms and conditions will tell you that the app will
have access to certain features on your Facebook, such as photo albums. If
you add a school-affiliated app, make sure to delete it as soon as it’s
served its purposes. On the left tool bar, scroll down to Apps and
Games>click the pencil icon next to the app you want to remove>click
remove.
- Set Albums to Private Mode. If you know you tend to post inappropriate and
incrementing photos, it would be a good idea to set those albums to
restrict view or simply delete them entirely.
- Restrict Tagging. You can’t control which photos your friends
want to post on your Timeline, but you can control which ones actually get
a spot on your page. Under the Privacy Settings go to Timeline and
Tagging>Edit Settings>Review Posts Friends Tag You in Before They
Appear on Your Timeline>On. This will help control any inappropriate
photo-tagging.
- Stop Uploading Albums. While restricting albums and restricting tags
can help, the truth is that every photo you upload can be uncovered in
some form or fashion. Thus, you might want to refrain from using Facebook
as a way to store all of your photos. Instead, use other sources as
SnapFish and DropBox to upload all of your backup photos. Worried that
people won’t be able to see them? Trust me when I say your friends don’t
really care to see your photos from your two week vacation in Goa as might
as you think they do. Keep the photos as memories, but you don’t have to
share your memories with everyone.
- Restrict Public Search. Last but not least, the harder it is to locate your profile the less chances an employer has of finding anything to create problems in your job or internship. To do this go to Privacy Settings>Apps, Games, Website>Public Search>Edit Settings> Disable Public Search.
That said, while your Facebook account shouldn’t play that big
of a role in determining whether you get accepted into you dream company or
not, the fact that it’s a possibility should motivate you enough to make it
presentable.
Keep Reading.
Stay Happy.
Alloyed Universe.
