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By ELIZABETH PEZZULLO
This is a cautionary tale to all you bloggers and cyber-chatters out there, both young and old. Jawing with strangers about your drunken exploits, your stint in rehab or your sexual conquests may seem like fun. But do you really want a prospective employer learning that you got so drunk you decided to streak through your neighborhood?
I don't think so.
But that's what's going on.
A recent study posted on career builder.com and conducted by executive search firm ExecuNet found that 77 percent of recruiters run searches of candidates on the Web. Thirty-five percent of these recruiters say they've eliminated a candidate based on the information they uncovered.
"You'd be surprised at what I've seen when researching candidates," said a spokeswoman for a Fortune 500 company who recently began looking up potential hires on the Web. "We were having a tough time deciding between two candidates until I found the profile of one of them on MySpace.com. It boasted a photo of her lounging on a hammock in a bikini, listed her interests as 'having a good time' and her sex as 'yes, please.' Not quite what we were looking for.
"Another time I went to a candidate's site and found racial slurs and jokes," she continued.
As truckloads of personal information are dumped online daily, first impressions are taking shape long before job candidates walk through the door, warns David Opton, ExecuNet CEO and founder. "Given the implications and the shelf life of Internet content, managing your online image is something everyone should address--regardless of whether or not you're in a job search," he said. Because the risks don't stop once you're hired.
Following is one of those gut-wrenching worst-case scenarios.
An anecdote on careerbuilder .com profiled a 23-year-old woman named Kara, who recently took a management job at a high-profile firm in Los Angeles. With few friends or family nearby, Kara put up a profile on MySpace in the hopes of meeting new people.
Kara was judicious in how she set up her site. She used a flattering photo, but not one too provocative. It wasn't long before Kara met others online who shared her interests.
One Friday, Kara decided to call in sick and go surfing with her new friends. That weekend, unbeknownst to Kara, her friend posted some of the day's pictures on her profile and sent Kara a message saying, "We should call in sick more often."
Unfortunately for Kara, her boss happened to be patrolling MySpace to check up on her daughter and came across Kara's site and photos.
It was unclear from the story what Kara's professional fate turned out to be, but it's safe to say she learned a valuable lesson.
Not all employers search candidates and employees online, but the trend is growing.
Here are some tips on keeping personal online information from costing you your career.
Be careful. Nothing is private. Don't post anything you wouldn't want a prospective employer, or your grandma, to see or read.
Be discreet. If your network offers the option, consider setting your profile to "private," so that it's viewed only by friends of your choosing.
Be prepared. Check your profile regularly to see what comments have been posted. Use a search engine to look for online records of yourself to see what is out there about you. If you find information you feel could be detrimental to your career, get it removed.
In this increasingly shameless society, it's best to retain a little pride and dignity.
Careerbuilder.com contributed to this report.
To reach ELIZABETH PEZZULLO:
Email: epezzullo@freelancestar.com
