Professional Site: LinkedIn

While attending school in New Jersey, one of my professors urged my peers and I to visit the career center in order to get a LinkedIn profile set up.  My professor informed me that LinkedIn is rapidly growing, and it looks better to have a LinkedIn account appear on Google before a Facebook or Twitter account.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional website that lets you create your own profile including your contact information and resume.  Through LinkedIn, you can connect with past co-workers, peers, or even professors. 

LinkedIn can be utilized so that you stay connected to professionals in all types of fields.

You can also ask your connections to write recommendations for you on LinkedIn.

If you haven't already, go here to make a LinkedIn account today!

Drunk Facebook Photos

You had a great time last night, and so did your photographer.

When acting a fool, make sure that you can actually trust your friends AND make sure that those friends won't embarrass you by posting drunk photos online.

Some may get a few laughs out of your drunken chicken dance, but your future employer probably won't find your dance so funny.

In the end, you may not be laughing.  

Prevent this hypothetical disaster.  

If you absolutely HAVE to post an on-the-edge picture online, at least be cautious.

You Sent WHAT Photo?

Through cell phones and the internet, information can be shared faster than blinking an eye.  For some celebrities, or high school students, sharing photos can be damaging. 

Disney star Vanessa Hudgens had previously taken nude photos of herself and reportedly sent them to her boyfriend.  From there, the photos ended up all over the internet...

People.com said:

Disney's High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens is speaking out after a nude photo of the actress hit the Internet on Thursday. 

In a statement released Friday by her rep, Hudgens, 18, says: "I want to apologize to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me. I am embarrassed over this situation and regret having ever taken these photos. I am thankful for the support of my family and friends." 

See the rest of the remarks and story on People.com here.

Yikes!  Be careful when sharing private photos or information.  In fact, nude photos probably aren't the best thing to mess around with.  Sending something like this could be so harmful to your professional reputation, especially if your name is associated with the photos.  

Everyone makes mistakes, but try to limit what those mistakes are!

Google Yourself

If you haven't already, Google yourself. 

What comes up?

Then, go to images, and see if your photo comes up.

Doing this search process helps you identify how vulnerable you are to the world wide web.  If a stranger knew your name-- just what could he/she find out about you?

How much could your potential employer find out about you?

Kelly Cutrone Video

I just found the video clip from Kelly Cutrone's reality show "Kell On Earth" where the newly hired intern that tweeted about the show was fired within 20 minutes of being hired.

See the clip of Virginia (the new intern) and her tweets below.

So important to remember discretion within your workplace.


Lastly, I found another blog that was fostering a conversation regarding 
this specific Twitter scandal.  The blogger, Kalisah, initially posted that if she were Virginia, she "would be pissed."  Kalisah also continues to explain why she feels it wasn't fair to fire Virginia.  


In response to this Kalisah's post, an anonymous poster replied with:

Anonymous said...

"In their defense about the blogging, they are blogging about what's happening as the show presents events, and not as they happen in real time. Given how tons of reality shows make people sign NDA's to protect material that will later be presented, they had a legitimate right to be weary about someone who was so frivolously twittering every single detail about joining the cast.
And how much of their twittering details actual events and not trivialities like 'I'm tired and need coffee.' Virginia gave them every reason to believe that discretion would not be her forte and has no reason to be pissed. Just because someone embraces new social media doesn't mean s/he is adept at using it in the best possible way for the sake of the company. Your argument essentially says that someone at XYZ company should hire a twittering fiend even though that person may divulge confidential or sensitive material to the masses because they embrace new media."

I agree with this response. 


To see Kalisah's full blog post that "anonymous" was arguing with, check out her blog here.

Colleges Researching Your Social Media

It's true that many colleges have decided to check out potential students through social networking sites like Facebook.  Private colleges especially are interested in seeing how their students are represented on the web.

I found a very informative article on colleges using Facebook to profile check their prospective students.  The article was very eye opening and I found specific quotes to make a lot of sense.

To read the full article on U.S. News' website, go here.

The article said a few things that really caught my attention.

U.S. News said:

"In a recent survey of admissions officers at 359 colleges and universities, Kaplan Test Prep revealed that 24 percent of respondents reported using Facebook or other social networking pages to research an applicant."

A dean of admissions was quoted saying:

 "I think anything that is in the public domain is fair game for admissions counselors to look at," she says. "Admissions officers are part of the public and, if they choose to research [social media], I don't consider that an invasion of privacy."

 I would have to agree with this statement.  

Students can choose to make their Facebook profiles private and inaccessible to the public.

As for the students' thoughts and feelings?

One student from Rochester Institute of Technology said:

"Your Facebook is supposed to show how you want to be perceived," Siegel says. "And if you're doing stupid things on your Facebook, that's how people will perceive you."

 It seems students do agree, the world wide web is fair game.  Maybe some students beg to differ though...

As far as colleges that do not check social media sites, one dean said:

 "I believe the reality that if this trend increases, students need to be very cautious of the fact that admissions offices will use this information," she says.

I really enjoyed this article. 

Work and Social Media Passwords

According to a report from news site The Republic, the Michigan House committee has made it so that Michigan employees are not required to give up their social media site passwords in order to be hired.

I agree with this, althought I also think it is important to monitor what is going on your social media sites, because even a password can't protect explicit content from reaching world wide web viewers. Make sure that what you post online is something you can live with!

Check out more on the bill here.