Treat Your Facebook Page Like a Resume

Anyone who has a Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking site account should read Newsweek's Web of Risks article. It discusses how your social networking accounts can impact your personal and your professional life, even if you are just starting out on a search for an internship or a job.

College staff, prospective employers, and others are finding ways to view accounts. It's not that hard to do, especially when, according to the Newsweek article, only 17% of users change their privacy settings to limit who can view their pages. Laurie Sybel, Director of Career Development at Vermont Technical College, shares some simple (and good) advice - "Treat your Facebook page like a resume." Heeding that advice means being cognizant of the fact that a future employer may be able to see what you have posted. On a related note, I still cringe at the thought of any employer seeing some of the pictures I've seen on Facebook and MySpace pages!

• Job Search Privacy Checklist
• How Blogging and Social Networking Can Impact Your Job Search
• MySpace and Facebook
• Poll: Are You Concerned About Posting Information Online?