How does Facebook Affect Your Career?

Sometimes, making a post or status update in Facebook could damage your career. We all know that it is the no. 1 social networking site as of the moment that its usage is definitely affecting one’s life too.

For some, this “in thing” about social media is new to them. Of course, many would love to update their status with the latest happening in their life say how their baby made its first few steps. People love sharing these simple priceless moments. We used to keep photos like in the old times, a photo album like if you have visitors at home, you can hand them down your photos for them to check. We just need to be reminded sometimes to take responsibility in what we post online as sometimes, it could ruin our reputation.

And now, we have the other side of the story – what we call as the UGLY post statuses. Based on my personal experience, with what is obvious now, friends can simply post nasty things on their walls and it could be seen around if your settings are not properly configured.
I’ve seen in my naked eyes those frustrations by my friends, their problem with their jobs, nagging partners, and bitter friends who hated them.

Do you know how many users does Facebook have? About 15 million now and 78 percent of that are in the age range of 18 to 54. Definitely, they know what’s happening with the world base on what they see on the walls of their friends.
In other words, how is social network helpful to those who are looking for jobs?

Be careful with what you post on Facebook or in other social networking sites. Although, you can UNDO what you posted or perhaps, delete the whole thing once you realized that what you made in the first place could quite ruin your reputation. As you know, those lasting impressions can really be a big deal at all.

Employers and recruiters will search you in Google, it’s highly likely they will come across your Facebook page and they will almost certainly take a peek. A first impression will be formed and after a little old ‘Facebook stalking’, your fate with that company will be formed. According to facecrooks.com, a survey found that 25% of employers check social networking sites before choosing whom to hire. Half of these employers have chosen to forego candidates due to details found in social media.

So before committing career suicide, here are a few tips to consider:

• Adjust your privacy settings to remove your profile from public view
• Think – Think – Think and then Think again before you post anything
• Don’t overdo the status updates, besides boring your friends, you will give employers the wrong impression about your productivity
• Don’t overuse the acronyms, especially my all time least favourite – FML (I had to Google it the first time I saw it to learn what it meant)
• Don’t use profile pictures that show you half-dressed with a beer in hand at a music festival – this won’t impress your potential employers
• Resist the urge to share compromising photos – no need to explain this one further

So after this, you know already how to present yourself online. It is good to think a million times before you make any post or status in your social media accounts. Make sure, you won’t regret what you will post as not to give any further damage on your part. Just keep it cool!